You may have heard this from a conservative friend already, but NASA recalculated its temperature records for 1998 and the year is no longer the hottest in the 48 states (1934 is). Hill Heat has a good synopsis of the political fallout- sometimes more interesting than the science itself. RealClimate has a good rundown on the science. What your conservative friend did not tell you is that the differences are statistically insignificant. Anyway, the problem with the NASA data was found by a blogger from http://www.climateaudit.org/. Nice work, Steve McIntyre. You get the gold star for analyzing primary data and for paying attention.

The data record still indicates that temperatures on the surface of the Earth are getting warmer. The data corrections are for anomalies of surface air temperatures for the 48 states and do not change the fact that temperatures in 19 of the past 26 years globally have been setting records, and that 2005 was the warmest year on record for the globe. According to RealClimate:

More importantly for climate purposes, the longer term US averages have not changed rank. 2002-2006 (at 0.66

First, the challenge before us, the three major consequences of Global Warming:

• First, there is the extermination of species. We could drive half of the plant and animal species on the planet to extinction.
• Second, there is potential instability of the ice sheets. If additional global warming exceeds two degrees Fahrenheit, the West Antarctic ice sheet and part of Greenland surely will become unstable, causing eventual sea level rise of several meters. The disaster in New Orleans will be small potatoes compared with world wide catastrophes due to rising seas.

Third, there will be a noticeable increase in climate extremes, at both ends of the hydrologic cycle. Heavy rains and floods will increase, but so will extreme droughts and forest fires

This is a rosy future. A clear statement from perhaps the top scientist in the world re Global Warming / the climate crisis.

What is the Declaration? What does he want candidates to swear to?

Declaration 1: Moratorium on Dirty Coal: I will support a moratorium on construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and store CO2.

In explanation of this first declaration, I note that it is, by far, the most important thing that must be done to stop global warming.

Declaration 2: A Price on Carbon Emissions. I will support a gradually rising price on carbon emissions, reflecting costs to the environment, with mechanisms to adjust the price that are economically sound. A first step will be to eliminate subsidies of fossil fuels.

In explanation, the carbon price provides an effective way to support energy efficiency, conservation, renewable energy, nuclear power, and other low carbon energies, allowing these to compete against each other and permitting local choices. … A price on carbon emissions is needed to stretch oil and gas supplies as we develop technologies needed for the world