Two recent climate studies that I thought we might want deposited at the Repository for posterity's sake.

Washington Post -- Glacier Melt Could Signal Faster Rise in Ocean Levels:

"Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, the result of a warming trend that renders obsolete predictions of how quickly Earth's oceans will rise over the next century, scientists said yesterday."

The new data come from satellite imagery and give fresh urgency to worries about the role of human activity in global warming. The Greenland data are mirrored by findings from Bolivia to the Himalayas, scientists said, noting that rising sea levels threaten widespread flooding and severe storm damage in low-lying areas worldwide."

St. Louis Columbus Dispatch "Rapid Rise in Global Warming a Dire Threat, Scientists Warn"

Humans are burning fossil fuels so rapidly that Earth is headed toward its warmest period in 55 million years, a panel of scientists warned yesterday.

...

Burning coal, oil and naturalgas reserves at the current rate is expected to release 5,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide ? a gigaton is 1 billion tons ? into the atmosphere and push carbondioxide levels to more than five times current levels.

The last time the atmosphere was laced with that much carbon dioxide the world?s oceans stagnated with dead vegetation and life in the sea and on land was fundamentally altered, the researchers say.

"That?s exactly the amount we will add to the atmosphere if all fossil fuels are combusted," Zachos said.