This month the IPCC releases its second report, which focuses on global warming's impacts, ranging from intensifying droughts to heavier downpours and other extreme weather events. The third report--due out in May--will discuss options for mitigation, such as alternatives to fossil fuels. In the U.S., the commitment to such alternatives remains precarious--the budget for biofuel and hydrogen research has risen, but funding for other renewable energy sources has declined. And all that has been budgeted for such research represents less investment than the U.S. made in the 1970s.

"There is at least a perception among at least some students," Alley notes, "that the support for the search for solutions to energy and global warming is not yet reliable enough for those students to commit their future to it." Given the conservative IPCC estimates, the need for such solutions seems evident.

This article was originally published with the title Conservative Climate.

4 Comments

1. 1. pgtruspace 03:20 AM 2/28/09

   This article was written 2 years ago about information 3 or more years old why is it in here?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. pgtruspace 03:28 AM 2/28/09

   What would be news is if the computer modeling of the previous 100 years and the succeding years accuratly predicted the last 3 years.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. wcampos 03:55 PM 12/14/10

   I have read somewhere else that the melting of glaciers may be due to hot water currents underneath. That the sun controls the climate on Earth. And that Global Warming is not really corroborated yet. I see a lot of propaganda in television. And this article is very unscientific and biased. Should I believe in Global Warming?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. Lazarus 11:19 AM 5/15/11

   wcampos says:
   "Should I believe in Global Warming?"
   
   What you should be asking is should you believe what you read somewhere else rather than the general agreement of 'More than 2,000 scientists from 154 countries' who have researched the issue?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this