NASA says that the temperatures are reaching the highest level in a million years. And that the last time the temps were this high, the sea level was about 80ft higher than it is today. Guess some of you are reconsidering your brilliant idea to get shore property, huh? Chumps.

Comparison of the current global temperature with estimates of historical temperatures - based on a study of ocean sediment - showed the current temperature was now within 1C of the maximum temperature of the past million years.

Dr James Hansen, who led the study, said further global warming of just 1C could lead to big changes to the planet.

"If warming is kept less than that, effects of global warming may be relatively manageable," he said.

"But if further global warming reaches two or three degrees celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet [to] the one we know.

...
Warming was lower over sea than on land, but the research team said the temperature of the western Pacific had been increasing, and was becoming much warmer than the eastern Pacific. This increased difference could boost the likelihood of strong El Niño weather conditions such as those seen in 1983 and 1998, when many countries around the world experienced devastating floods and tornadoes.

Dr Hansen said that the increasing temperature could lead to the extinction of some species, which would find it increasingly difficult to find viable habitats.

The article concludes with some comments by Earthwatch, some environmental group. Nothing could better illustrate why these groups never find any purchase with the average person. The earth's temperatures are rising rapidly. It could result in devastating storms across the globe. Storms that will inevitably kill millions of people. Katrina was too long ago for people to still care about it, but recently enough that people still pretend to care about it. Plenty of opportunity to tug on heart strings here. What do they do instead?

The environment group Earthwatch today warned that a change in climate could make the difference between survival and extinction for endangered lemurs in Madagascar.

Sure, I care about endangered species and all that. I don't want the lemurs in Madagascar to become extinct. But if this is the plea you've composed to try to get the world on your side, even I would be hard pressed to say you weren't cracked in the head.