455? Already?

Well, it looks like JT will have the chance to retire in a warm region after all:

Greenhouse gases already beyond 'worst-case': scientist

AP, By Meraiah Foley, October 9

SYDNEY, Australia — Worldwide economic growth has accelerated the level of greenhouse gas emissions to a dangerous threshold scientists had not expected for another decade, according to a leading Australian climate change expert.

[...]

Mr. Flannery, whose recent book The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, made bestseller lists worldwide, said the data showed that the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions had reached about 455 parts per million by mid-2005, well ahead of scientists' previous calculations.

“We thought we'd be at that threshold within about a decade, that we had that much time,” Mr. Flannery said. “I mean, that's beyond the limits of projection, beyond the worst-case scenario as we thought of it in 2001,” when the last major IPCC report was issued.

Which is nice, because Miami won't be an option:

The time has come for drastic action

The Age, By Kenneth Davidson, October 11

[...]

According to this report, which is a review of the latest scientific publications on the issue, the Arctic's floating sea ice is headed towards rapid summer disintegration by 2013, a century ahead of the IPCC projections. The rapid loss of Arctic sea ice will speed up the disintegration of the Greenland ice sheet and, through the albedo effect (white reflective ice replaced by dark, heat-absorbing sea), raise sea levels by as much as five metres by the turn of the century.