Humanity guilty as charged

Yes, it's official, and no government (yes, I mean you Bush administration) can hide behind any excuses anymore. The leading international network of climate change scientists has released a report that clearly shows how human beings are responsible for much of the global warming we already feel and that will be felt for, get ready for this, centuries to come.

From the International Herald Tribune:

In a bleak and powerful assesment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate change scientists concluded for the first time Friday that global warming was "unequivocal" and that human activity was "very likely" to blame. The warming will continue for hundreds of years, they predicted.

The scientists, members of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change, said that new science had also allowed them to conclude that the warming caused by human activity was probably influencing other aspects of climate change, including a rise in the number of heat waves, extreme storms and droughts, as well as ocean warming and wind patterns.
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The ripple effect of warming has devastating implications for humans that will continue for centuries even if carbon emissions could be stabilized at 2000 levels, because the gases persist for years. In fact, the impact that carbon emissions have on climate has increased 20 percent in the last 15 years, Solomon said.
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The report warns that heat waves, droughts and intense storms will continue to become more frequent.

I guess this was just a formality that is needed to spur wimpy and backpedaling governments to take action and make hard political decisions, since I had already figured we were responsible for much of global warming. The question is, will the nations of the world step up to the plate and do something about it?

More from The New York Times:

The summary added a new chemical consequence of the buildup of carbon dioxide to the list of mainly climatic and biological impacts foreseen in its previous reports: a drop in the pH of seawater as oceans absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide, which forms carbonic acid when partly dissolved. Marine biologists have said that could imperil some kinds of corals and plankton.
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But there would be more than a 1-in-10 chance of much greater warming, a situation many earth scientists say poses an unacceptable risk.

Many energy and environment experts see such a doubling as a foregone conclusion sometime after midcentury unless there is a prompt and sustained shift away from the 20th-century pattern of unfettered burning of coal and oil, the main sources of carbon dioxide, and an aggressive quest for expanded and improved nonpolluting energy options.
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But a broad array of scientists, including authors of the report and independent experts, said the latest analysis was the most sobering view yet of a century of transition — after thousands of years of relatively stable climate conditions — to a new norm of continual change.

Should greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere at even a moderate pace, average temperatures by the end of the century could match those last seen 125,000 years ago, in the previous warm spell between ice ages, the report said.
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“The implications of global warming over the coming decades for our industrial economy, water supplies, agriculture, biological diversity and even geopolitics are massive,” he said. “This new report should spur policymakers to get off the fence and put strong and effective policies in place to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.”

All things considered, I feel bad for the planet, but at least I won't be around to see the worst of the effects on the climate, the world, and its inhabitants. My kids, on the other hand, won't be so lucky, and my grandkids especially will be forced to live in a world that is much less hospitable than the one we live in.

Them, I feel bad for most of all.