A tortured post [1] by Ian Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute concludes that "The Kyoto Protocol, which (Al) Gore enthusiastically supports, would avert less than a tenth of a degree of warming in the next fifty years."

I take from this:

1. That the CEI acknowledges warming is occurring.

2. That it finds the Kyoto protocol inadequate to the challenge.

This acknowledgment comes at the end of a long list of quibbles over the gathering evidence that CO2 is, in fact, a significant contributor to climate change. But the argument in total suggests that Murray is fighting valliantly -- if hopelessly -- against the prospect of acknowledging that Al Gore (while undoubtedly irritating to Murray's libertarian buddies) is right.

The U.S. Academies of Science thinks so [2]. BP and Shell Oil think so. Murray can clutch at whatever insubstantial straws he likes, but he's fighting for a losing team. The only question is how long the desperate denial that he and his energy industry backers promote will delay an intelligent response.