Climate change: A guide for the perplexed

In the past years, untold numbers of scientists, politicians, talking heads, and family members have gone mano-a-mano over the contentious issue of global warming. Is it real? How fast is it happening? And are the polar bears truly on the brink of extinction?

In May 2007, New Scientist stepped into the ring with Climate Change: A Guide for the Perplexed, a "round-up of the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions." With brief answers and links to supplementary information, this manual on Earth's temperatures debunks such statements as "we can't do anything about climate change," "the oceans are actually cooling," "Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming," and "it's all a conspiracy."

We even found a few we'd never heard of before, like "Mars and Pluto are warming too."

Finally, the guides addresses the fate of the "poster children of global warming"—no, not Al Gore and Sheryl Crow, but the wild and wooly polar bears. Consider us a little less perplexed.

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