Gobal warming summary

There's a commments thread over at AMERICAblog about global warming deniers (apparently there are a lot of them) and one person (whose moniker is Joe Blow) left this excellent summary of what is happening:

Global warming is a fact. It is also a fact that it is caused by rising levels of CO2 and CH4. It is a fact that human activity has "liberated" enormous quantities of both since we started burning fossil fuels - that is, coal, oil, methane, etc. laid down millions of years ago. We are heating up this planet and we will see signifcant changes in our lifetimes. Millions of people are at risk of environmental catastrophy. Loss of water sources, severe storms, changed weather patterns, extinction of animals, etc.

CO2 does not reflect solar radiation so the suns rays can come through and heat the earth. It does reflect infra-red radiation so the heat given off by the earth's surface does not escape into space as much as it used to. The amount trapped is proportional to the abundance of greenhouse gases. Our current CO2 concentration is TWICE as much as any measured in the last 500,000 years and it is expected to TRIPLE In the next ten years if nothing is done.

We are reaching the saturation point in the oceans and they will soon turn acidic and no longer absorb more CO2. We can already measure the effects on plankton. The turn to the worse will be RAPID and eventually UNSTOPPABLE.

We need to do everything we can right now to cut emissions.

I wish I could copy that on a card and personally place it in the hands of every senator and congressperson - not to mention the president and his cabinet.