A recent essay says the most pressing current scientific and political challenge is to avoid what is known as “dangerous” global warming – the point where world temperatures become irreversible.

As there’s a 25-to-30-year lag between greenhouse emissions and the full impact of their warming, current climate chaos is a result of carbon spewed in the late 1970s. The hit from more recent discharges – including China’s coal plants -- is but pain yet to come.

So we’re dangerously close already.

As the world warms, the United States will face more severe thunderstorms with deadly lightning, damaging hail and the potential for tornadoes, a trailblazing study by NASA scientists suggests. While other research has warned of broad weather changes on a large scale, such as more extreme hurricanes and droughts, the new study predicts even smaller events such as thunderstorms will be more dangerous.

It's not surprising that a quickly acknowledged and corrected discrepancy in temperature recording by NASA was pounced on by the denier camp to further the proof that global warming is a hoax! Unsurprisingly, the reports have been biased and have omitted certain key facts, not the least of which is that the GLOBAL temperature record (it is after all, global warming) remains largely unaffected by the corrected data.

New Republic has published an excellent review of the facts using - wait for it - scientific data!

The US National Climatic Data Center just released data that shows that the period between January and June of 2007 constitutes the second warmest on record for that time period.

During the same period, the Southeast has been the second driest on record.

H/T: Think Progress.

The American Prospect, June 19, 2007 Two Paths for the Planet: Will we rewire the world with clean energy – or descend into political chaos, social disruption and climate hell?

And will Washington get with the program?