The Speed of Climate Change

A report from Stanford University says the rate of change for global temperatures is now larger than at any time in the past 65 million years.  Previous warming periods amounted to a change of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius over 20,000 years.  If the earth experiences that kind of warming by the end of this century, it will be at a rate that's about 100 times as fast.  Another way to visualize this change is to picture an ecosystem needing to move a yard per day to maintain similar conditions.  Many species would not be able to adapt to such rapid change.

Update (August 7):  State of the Climate 2012 from NOAA.

Update (August 10):  Michael T. Klare says the energy industry is not making any significant investment into renewable sources--the effort is going into developing unconventional oil and gas reserves.