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By Juliet Eilperin An international panel of climate scientists said yesterday that there is an overwhelming probability that human activities are warming the planet at a dangerous rate, with consequences that could soon take decades or centuries to reverse. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of hundreds of scientists from 113 countries, said that based on new research over the last six years, it is 90 percent certain that human-generated greenhouse gases account for most of the global rise in temperatures over the past half-century. Declaring that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal," the authors said in their "Summary for Policymakers" that even in the best-case scenario, temperatures are on track to cross a threshold to an unsustainable level. A rise of more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels would cause global effects -- such as massive species extinctions and melting of ice sheets -- that could be irreversible ...

You can see that there's practical value in learning more about Global warming and evolution. Can you think of ways to apply what's been covered so far? The battle over the science of global warming has long been a street fight between mainstream researchers and skeptics. But never have the scientists received such a deep wound as when, in late November, a large trove of e-mails and documents stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia were released onto the Web. In the ensuing "Climategate" scandal, scientists were accused of withholding information, suppressing dissent, manipulating data and more. But while the controversy has receded, it may have done lasting damage to science's reputation: Last month, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 40 percent of Americans distrust what scientists say about the environment, a considerable increase from April 2007. Meanwhile, public belief in the science of global warming is i...

You can see that there's practical value in learning more about Global warming in a snowstorm. Can you think of ways to apply what's been covered so far? The dead of winter – especially this winter with its massive snow storms in the eastern United States – is not the easiest time to make the case for global warming. Short-term weather events and long-range climate change are not the same thing, of course, but it’s hard to separate them in the public’s mind. But it’s even harder these days to convincingly argue that climate change is a reality. “Gloomy unemployment numbers, public frustration with Washington, attacks on climate science, and mobilized opposition to national climate legislation represent a ‘perfect storm’ of events that have lowered public concerns about global warming even among the alarmed,” says Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change. Yale and George Mason University recently polled on the question. Since 2008, the number of peop...

By Jonathan Leake, Science and Environment Editor THE United Nations climate science panel faces new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods. It based the claims on an unpublished report that had not been subjected to routine scientific scrutiny — and ignored warnings from scientific advisers that the evidence supporting the link too weak. The report's own authors later withdrew the claim because they felt the evidence was not strong enough. The claim by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that global warming is already affecting the severity and frequency of global disasters, has since become embedded in political and public debate. It was central to discussions at last month's Copenhagen climate summit, including a demand by developing countries for compensation of $100 billion (£62 billion) from the rich nations blamed for creating the most emissions. Ed Mili...

by Chris Good -- staff editor at TheAtlantic.com Irked by the suggestion of climate change doubters that the East Coast snowstorm is proof that global warming doesn't exist, the liberal Center for American Progress pulled together a conference call today to tell reporters not only that that's not the case, but, basically, to stop being a mouthpiece for people who doubt the science. Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Weather Underground, got on the call to remind everyone that snowfall does not equal a drop in temperature--that as long as it's cold enough for snow, precipitation means a snowstorm. More precipitation--including heavy snowstorms--is a sign of global warming, he said, as atmospheric moisture levels have increased with warmer temperatures, meaning more storms with heavy snow or rain. "We still will have snowstorms, and the signs of record snowstorms being evidence against global warming is just not true," Masters said. "In the future we shou...