The link is to an article on NSF-funded work on the climate. It says the CO2 levels that we could reach by the end of the century (and I tend to think we will reach) are similar to levels when the earth waas vastly warmer.

On the other hand, even with these levels, it would take a long time to melt the East Antarctic Ice sheet...I'd think thousands of years. Greenland ice sheet might be 100s of years.

The other climate news is that 2010 was tied with 2005 as the warmest globally since records were kept. 1998 was third. All the talk about cooling in the first few years of this century (including Dennis?) was by comparison to 1998.
I'll admit I saw that talk of cooling enough that it left me confused.

Meanwhile, the actual global change to date is relative small (except in Artic, Antarctic Peninsula, mountain glaciers), so I have been skating on ponds and cross country skiing in my heartland small city. And, another medium snowstorm is headed here late tomorrow.

Chris

• NSF climate