Sarcasm aside, here's the deal: the polar ice is melting -- it's just not there any more, look at the satellite maps! -- and polar bears are cannibalizing their young because the rotten ice floating around in the rising oceans won't support their weight, so they can't hunt seals.

How dramatic is this melting polar ice? There is talk of opening shipping lanes for the first time ever through an Arctic Ocean.

It's not just happening in the Arctic. In November, Australia experienced record high and low temperatures, and a month's worth of rain fell in six hours in Ondoy in the Philippines.

And if you want to consider some of the more alarming predictions, a recent study estimated that ice melting in the Antarctic could cause the ocean levels to rise four and a half feet by the end of the century.

You don't have to like or respect the scientists doing the research -- they seem like a typical bunch of smug smart dudes who think they know more than the rest of us. Probably because they do. But you do have to admit that bad things, potentially life-threatening things, are happening to our planet.

You can denigrate the messenger, but you can't fight the facts.

Bryan Appleyard of the Times of London beautifully explains his transition from a climate skeptic to a believer in an article titled simply, "Global Warming is Real." In it he calmly refutes the most incendiary of The Deniers' claims, and separates the science from the politics.

There is a huge task at hand, one that requires the cooperation of the whole world. In the absence of a malevolent alien invader who will convince us to put aside our differences and work together to save the planet, perhaps we could take a page from Mr. Appleyard's book.

Ignore the office politics of academic publishing, mute the negative distraction of The Deniers, and focus on the facts: there is more carbon dioxide in the air than ever before, there are massive climate changes happening all over the world, and we need a global plan for survival.

The only smart course of action is to put resources and support behind research to confirm why this is happening, in an effor to to find a way to solve, fix or cope with the realities.

Good thing we have all of the leaders of the world meeting at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen next week. This will definitely give them something to talk about!