Increasing evidence is being presented regarding climate change and global warming. Yet there are a small group of researchers who present data and argue that fears of climate change are overblown. Where do you believe research stands on this issue?

I agree that the evidence is clear. Some will not believe no matter what the evidence - look at the holocaust issue. The question is what to do. The earth has always experienced climate changes, now the challenge is to counter the "normal" activity and then to correct what humankind has done. The greening movement seems to be a positive response. I also know that Waste Management is doing some good work on landfills, just need a critical mass. Something like in the movie Finding Nemo, if we all swim in the same direction, we will be successful.

How is the melting of the ice caps explained if we are in an ice age? I agree that there is a natural cycle of climate change, but humanity also has an impact and skewed the natural cycle. This is an empirical question and there is more evidence accumulating as people are studying this.

"Drill-baby-drill" does not take account that oil is a finite resource that is not easily or rapidly replaced and that demand will outstrip supply. We have now exploited most of the easily reached supplies. Drilling in many of the available sites is extremely expensive and dangerous.

Humankind is creative enough to figure out ways to use renewable, safe sources of energy. We are beginning to learn how to convert trash to energy (that is what Waste Management) is doing). We can take a landfill and create methane gas. We can recycle and create products with less impact. We only have one earth, some are satisfied that as long as it still is working during their lifetimes that is enough, others have a longer term view and want to preserve for future generations.

Climate change is upon us, whether human in origin or not. In all likelihood, it is caused, or at the very least greatly aggravated by human activity. From the drastic deforestation of the Amazon and Congo basins, to the accelerated increase in the burning of fossil fuels, to the greenhouse gases caused by intensive animal farming and other industrial activities, we are fiddling on the roof while Rome burns.

There is unfortunately very little political will to do anything meaningful to reduce or stop the trend. This is largely because economic growth, especially for developing economies like China, India and Brazil, is inextricably linked to activities that are destructive to the environment.

With the impending displacement of hundreds of millions of people as sea levels rise worldwide, at some point governments will be forced to take notice.

Let us hope and pray that by then the problem will still be reversible, and it will not be too late.

My greatest fear concerning climate change is that it may already have become irreversible. According to the United kingdom's Prince Charles, we have about 100 months before the climate change becomes catastrophic. I remember the movie "the Day After", which explored in Hollywood's inimitable manner, climate change spiraling out of control. While I appreciate the movie industry's penchant for imagineering, there is something about that movie that unsettled me deeply.

Unfortunately I have little faith in the ability and political will of the leaders of the international community to adopt a useful common position and take concerted and determined action. I am hoping that they will surprise us all this time, for their own sakes as well as ours.

To me, it's not an issue of "if" there is climate change (that's the politically correct term now) of course there is, how much of it is natural and how much is caused by man, I don't agree that we know definitively what, where, and how much. Are we just talking about reducing emissions or are we talking about interfering with nature as in the proposed "sun-shield satellite"?

The need for better information so we can make more accurate climate change predictions so we know where to focus is very important, IMHO. More emphasis is now being placed on local and regional impacts of climate change.
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One of the the examples used to show how serious global warming is the melting of the glaciers.The problem with that is that the glaciers have been melting for several thousand years. Isn't that how the Great Lakes were formed and didn't we once have an ICE AGE. Seems to me, from the scientific data that we are still in a warming process.

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The climate is changing. The earth is warming up, and there is now overwhelming scientific consensus that it is happening, and human-induced. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. Many are agreed that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet. Recent years show increasing temperatures in various regions, and/or increasing extremities in weather patterns. Since years the human insensitive action may be cause of climate change and global warming. We should provide awareness about this among our coming and existing generation. You know in colleges and universities many life science and environment science students are providing amble knowledge by conducting climate change essays. This will be helped students to know more about the consequences and affects of climate changes and global warming.