climate cleopatras (queens of d nile—but i don't have to tell you that unless your name's rip van winkle)

it's common to hear cato-insitute/reason-foundation types pooh-pooh global warming, and many of us don't always know how to respond. after all, we're basically ignorant—and we know it.

a 1° rise in average global temperature over the past century, for example, doesn't sound all that alarming.

john cox, speaking on his book climate crash at the national academy of sciences' museum in DC a few weeks ago, put it in perspective. he pointed out that the present average global temperature is only about 5° higher than it was at the depths of the ice age....