Global warming: A lot of hot air?

Clearly, something has changed in the atmosphere. But what?

Answer that question too fast and you'll have a disaster like Kyoto, which tried, rather foolishly, to use the templates of nuclear diplomacy to get nations to cut carbon emissions.

Now we have another "problem": Global warming has, for the time being at least, stopped (story here). Temperatures were no higher last year than they were in 2001. Yet carbon emissions continue to climb.

The problem when you charge a scientific issue with political ideology is that it becomes easy to get sidetracked. Let's continue to work toward reducing carbon emissions and our dependence on foreign oil. That's just smart. But let's not yet assume that we understand perfectly how or why the world is warming, and what our role in that phenomenon is. The fact is, we don't.

(Pix: Greenland's "Warming Islands," revealed as a glacier melted away.)