New Global Warming Report Says We're Way More Screwed Than Previously Thought

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All the news about auto-emissions and Blago's maybe-confession to Rachel Maddow seems to have somehow eclipsed this rather horrific and monumental bit of news about something bigger than all that other stuff: the PLANET. According to a report released yesterday, the warming we've already caused is irreversible, and that based on the damage we've already done, the planet will continue to toast till at least the year 3,000. That doesn't even account for your drive to work today.I (and lots of people who know way more than I do) have always thought that if we somehow curbed our CO2 now, the planet would go back to normal in a couple hundred years at the most. Not the case, says this new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory. (An excellent NPR piece about this is also available here.)Now, when news like this surfaces it's all to easy to take the "we're screwed anyway" attitude that can too easily foster inaction, laziness, and the altogether wrong decisions. So while we can no longer restore the planet to pre-industrialization, we do stand a chance to slow the rate at which we continue to warm the planet. May we propose, then, that this is more a reason than ever for all of us to do our part? If not for yourself or your maybe-one-day-children, then for the polar bears.