Earth

There's no question that the Earth is getting hotter. The real questions are: How much of the warming is our fault, and are we willing to slow the devastation by controlling our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels? Global warming can seem too remote to worry about, or too uncertain-something projected by the same computer techniques that often can't get next week's weather right. On a raw winter day, you might think that a few degrees of warming wouldn't be such a bad thing anyway. And no doubt about it: Warnings about climate change can sound like an environmentalist scare tactic, meant to force us out of our cars and restrict our lifestyles.