Copenhagen: One of the last big CO2-hysteric meetings of this century?

The average December in Copenhagen has 17 days of rain and a temperature of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius. So, those readers planning to travel there for the U.N. Climate Change Conference at the end of this year will want to book a warm, dry bed for recovering from all the talking, negotiating, talking about negotiating, reporting about talking and negotiating, and all the other crazy stuff sure to go down in the Danish capital.

So, reserve a room now. As in, soon. Possibly yesterday.

Conference organizers say they're already flooded with lodging requests, and while rooms are still available, the ones closest to the conference headquarters are largely booked 10-months out from the gathering.

Organizers are preparing for 12,000 to 15,000 visitors during the Dec. 7 to 18 conference, more than attended the Kyoto and Bali climate conferences. The actual number depends a lot on whether heads of state attend (entourages in tow), or merely send representatives, says Maja Kolmos of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Tropical Turtle Fossil Discovered in the High Arctic | How do we know that the Earth is "too hot" now?

Models suggest there may have been between eight times and 16 times as much CO2 in the atmosphere as there was just before the Industrial Revolution.
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These findings, and others from researchers studying plants, dinosaurs and other vertebrates, helped reveal that the Earth was a very different place in Aurorachelys' time. For a long stretch — from about 100 million years ago to 40 million years ago — it was a hothouse, with diverse reptile communities living above the Arctic Circle and ferns, cycads and palms thriving near the South Pole. The waters around the North Pole were warm enough for a comfortable swim 55 million years ago, and year-round average land temperatures in the tropics may have reached 105 degrees Fahrenheit (today they rarely top the mid-80s). [Via Celebrity Paycut]