I read Fareed Zakaria's column in Newsweek entitled, "Global Warming: Get Used to It." Mr. Zakaria's position is that global warming is real and unfortunately, unstoppable. He notes that greenhouse gases 'do not disappear or dissipate easily" and that "[e]ven if the world adopted the most far-reaching plans to combat climate change, most scientists agree that the concentration of greenhouse gases will continue to rise for the next few decades." He further notes that per leading scientists, we would need to cut our carbon dioxide emissions by 60% just to keep greenhouse gases at the current levels. This seems highly unlikely to happen, both in light of the Bush Administration's refusal to set in place mandatory carbon dioxide caps and the blatant pursuit of more coal-fired power plants by companies like TXU. Even if mandatory caps were instituted, the most we could hope for in the foreseeable future to be imposed would probably be in the 10-15% reduction range. Plus, how are we going to regulate China and India, with the 650 coal-fired power plants in the works? Mr. Zakaria's point seems to be not to throw our hands up and give in to global warming but rather, to admit it's happening and will happen and to start making a Plan B. In other words, if we can't stop global warming (which he feels we should still try to combat), we must prepare ourselves better for it. He notes such concepts as developing plants and crops better suited for hot, arid climates and relocating some seaside communities.

Mr. Zakaria raises some really valid points. He talks of two realities--i.e. that we must cut greenhouse gases to mitigate some of the global warming consequences and that we must prepare ourselves for the future of a more volatile earth. If we don't do both of these tasks, we could end up with an even worse case of global warming and a world of people wholly unprepared for the fallout. I wonder what George Will would say about this? If he has a home along the coast, he might want to heed Mr. Zakaria's warning.