The world has ten years to change its care-free lifestyle or slide into a new world of Global Warming. In an article in This Week in Germany, Stefan Rahmstorf, professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University, warns that the oceans have ten years before the changes caused by Global Warming become irreversible for the next thousand years. The oceans are warming faster than past computer models had predicted and if there is no change in the next ten years, the ocean temperature will rise three degrees.  

Three degrees does not sound like much, but it is enough of a change to cause most coastal cities and much of the productive coastal farmland in the world to disappear. The acidity of the ocean will also change causing such creatures as plankton, shrimp, and the other tiny creatures that feed most of the ocean fish to die off.  The good news is that the situation is not yet irreversible; the old Kevin Costner movie "Water World" does not go from Science Fiction to Documentary, just yet. The bad news is that something must be done now. The governments of the world are looking at their last good chance to avoid the problems that Global Warming will cause, but they must act now.    

http://www.germany.info/relaunch/business/new/bus_ocean_climate_change_3_2007.html