It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.

 

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Times Topics: Global Warming | Al Gore

Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil. And we would still trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy %u2014 the most important sources of new jobs in the 21st century.

But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake.

I, for one, genuinely wish that the climate crisis were an illusion. But unfortunately, the reality of the danger we are courting has not been changed by the discovery of at least two mistakes in the thousands of pages of careful scientific work over the last 22 years by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In fact, the crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every 24 hours into the atmosphere %u2014 as if it were an open sewer.

It is true that the climate panel published a flawed overestimate of the melting rate of debris-covered glaciers in the Himalayas, and used information about the Netherlands provided to it by the government, which was later found to be partly inaccurate. In addition, e-mail messages stolen from the University of East Anglia in Britain showed that scientists besieged by an onslaught of hostile, make-work demands from climate skeptics may not have adequately followed the requirements of the British freedom of information law.

But the scientific enterprise will never be completely free of mistakes. What is important is that the overwhelming consensus on global warming remains unchanged. It is also worth noting that the panel%u2019s scientists %u2014 acting in good faith on the best information then available to them %u2014 probably underestimated the range of sea-level rise in this century, the speed with which the Arctic ice cap is disappearing and the speed with which some of the large glacial flows in Antarctica and Greenland are melting and racing to the sea.

Because these and other effects of global warming are distributed globally, they are difficult to identify and interpret in any particular location. For example, January was seen as unusually cold in much of the United States. Yet from a global perspective, it was the second-hottest January since surface temperatures were first measured 130 years ago.

Similarly, even though climate deniers have speciously argued for several years that there has been no warming in the last decade, scientists confirmed last month that the last 10 years were the hottest decade since modern records have been kept.

The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as fodder for ridicule by those who argue that global warming is a myth, yet scientists have long pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere %u2014 thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions, including the Northeastern United States. Just as it%u2019s important not to miss the forest for the trees, neither should we miss the climate for the snowstorm.

Here is what scientists have found is happening to our climate: man-made global-warming pollution traps heat from the sun and increases atmospheric temperatures. These pollutants %u2014 especially carbon dioxide %u2014 have been increasing rapidly with the growth in the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and forests, and temperatures have increased over the same period. Almost all of the ice-covered regions of the Earth are melting %u2014 and seas are rising. Hurricanes are predicted to grow stronger and more destructive, though their number is expected to decrease. Droughts are getting longer and deeper in many mid-continent regions, even as the severity of flooding increases. The seasonal predictability of rainfall and temperatures is being disrupted, posing serious threats to agriculture. The rate of species extinction is accelerating to dangerous levels.

Though there have been impressive efforts by many business leaders, hundreds of millions of individuals and families throughout the world and many national, regional and local governments, our civilization is still failing miserably to slow the rate at which these emissions are increasing %u2014 much less reduce them.

And in spite of President Obama%u2019s efforts at the Copenhagen climate summit meeting in December, global leaders failed to muster anything more than a decision to %u201Ctake note%u201D of an intention to act.

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Al Gore, the vice president from 1993 to 2001, is the founder of the Alliance for Climate Protection and the author of %u201COur Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.%u201D As a businessman, he is an investor in alternative energy companies.

Sign in to Recommend Next Article in Opinion (3 of 28) A version of this article appeared in print on February 28, 2010, on page WK11 of the New York edition.

awesome! $6.99 in the app store!

very cool -- but palm really needs a new halo device. they need to marry webOS to the latest hardware. their future hinges on it.

Fixes:

* Time Zone bug fixed
* Network time sync bug fixed to reflect accurate Network time
* Bluetooth car-kit transition to device corrected
* No EV icon bug fixed (random)
* Random browser formatting bugs fixed
* Fixed bug that incorrectly displayed Sprint when actually was Digital Roaming
* Missing Contact issue specifically with swap down to 1.2.9.1 or less

Feature Updates

* Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
* Adds Video Capture capability & edit
* Calendar Enhancements
* Messaging Enhancements
* Improved Performance (Phone & CAL)
* Email Enhancements
* Notification Enhancements
* Adds Adobe Flash 10.0 (Pre Only)
* NOTE: The 1.4 software adds the ability to use the Flash 10.0 Adobe plug-in which will be available shortly from the Palm Appl Catalogue.

awesome!!!! woot woot!

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) %u2014 When Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs holds his annual face-to-face meeting with shareholders Thursday there will be no shortage of questions for a company famously stingy with information.

Shareholders want to know what Jobs has planned for the iPad, whether the iPhone can sustain its growth momentum amid greater competition, and what the company will do with its eye-popping $40 billion cash balance.

Apple%u2019s shares have been treading water around the $200 mark since last October, despite a strong December-quarter earnings report and massive hype around the iPad tablet, Apple%u2019s newest consumer device to be launched in late March.

With a market capitalization that has approached $200 billion in recent weeks, analysts say investors may be looking for a fresh catalyst to send shares that have already more than doubled from a year ago, even higher.

Shareholders want to know what Jobs has planned for the iPad, whether the iPhone can sustain its growth momentum amid greater competition, and what the company will do with its eye-popping $40 billion cash balance.

%u201CIt%u2019s a big company now and there are questions about the limits to growth in any market, and once you hit that $200 billion number, which they%u2019re close to, people have questions,%u201D said Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves.

The iPad has generated nearly as many questions as publicity, since no one knows what the consumer appetite is for a so-called %u201Cthird category%u201D of mobile device, which bridges the gap between smartphones and laptop computers.

%u201CFor most investors at this point, the iPad is a show-me story,%u201D Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner said. Although Reiner is bullish on the device, he said some see it as a niche product, unlike the iPhone, iPod or MacBook.

Analysts%u2019 estimates put first-year iPad sales at about 2 million to 5 million units. It will appear in stores as early as the end of March, starting at $499.

It was unclear how much information Apple would provide at the shareholder meeting, which will be held Thursday at its corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California. Such events tend to be fairly routine, attracting small investors rather than big shareholders.

The attention at last year%u2019s meeting was focused on Jobs, whose six-month medical leave had heightened concerns about his well being at the time. But with the CEO back at the helm, and with no major issues on the voting agenda, interest may shift to operational matters.

All seven of Apple%u2019s directors will stand for re-election. Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from the board last summer, but no one has been nominated to fill the gap.

Concerns About the iPhone

Besides the iPad, investors will likely ask Apple about the iPhone, which now faces serious competition from an array of touch-screen devices, particularly those based on Google%u2019s Android platform.

IPhone sales in the December quarter doubled, but came in lower than some had expected. %u201CWhen you sell that many devices over that period of time and you have that big a change in the competitive environment, there%u2019s going to be concern, and it%u2019s legitimate. Android is much different than what they were competing against,%u201D Hargreaves said.

And there is still no word on when the iPhone might be distributed through U.S. carriers other than AT&T, whose network performance has come under fierce criticism, particularly in New York and San Francisco.

Some analysts believe Verizon Wireless could get an iPhone contract this year.

Broadpoint Amtech analyst Brian Marshall said international sales of the iPhone are the biggest driver of Apple shares over the next year, and investors are craving more information.

%u201CWhat%u2019s the company really doing to grow sales on the international side?%u201D he said.

Cash Galore

It is not a new subject, but Apple%u2019s enormous cash hoard continues to be a big subject of interest for investors. The company generated $5.8 billion in cash in its most recent quarter, and boasts $43 a share in cash and securities.

%u201CSomething like a dividend wouldn%u2019t necessarily help the stock, but I think investors would be happy to have that cash at their disposal,%u201D Reiner said.

The company last bought back shares in 2001 and scrapped its dividend in the mid 1990s.

Apple%u2019s cash balance is the largest among U.S. technology companies, and many analysts think the company should put at least some of the money to work.

%u201CThey%u2019re in a league of their own, so at least start a new buyback,%u201D Marshall said.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Tiffany Wu and Maureen Bavdek.)

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• Can Apple%u2019s iPad Save the Media After All?
• Apple Change Quietly Makes iPhone, iPad Into Web Phones
• Apple iPad%u2019s Tiny SIM Is Just There to Mess With You
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apple has $40 billion in cash on hand and generated $5 billion last quarter alone. $200 billion market cap... just awesome...