Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Hope on Ice: The White House Gets "Real" on Climate Change

In a speech that Stephen Power reported in the Wall Street Journal , [Todd] Stern said the road map of greenhouse-gas emission reductions laid out at a 2007 summit in Bali was simply too ambitious. “We need to be very mindful of what the dictates of science are, and of the art of the possible,” he said. The Bali targets – a 25% to 40% cut by industrialized nations by 2020 – were simply too ambitious. “It’s not possible to get that kind of number. It’s not going to happen,” he said.

This lowering of expectations seems to be part of the Obama administration’s message on climate change right now.
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Still, Mr. Stern has a habit of talking a big game. This is the guy who said, at his introductory press conference, “The time for denial, delay and dispute is over.” But his ideas seem to have more bark than bite when it comes to his approach to climate-change policy.

Climate Observations: A Recent Drop in the AMO

Based on monthly OI.v2 SST data, the AMO has fallen more than 0.5 deg C since June 2008, from ~0.49 Deg C in June 2008 to ~-0.02 Deg C in February 2009. Drops of that magnitude have happened in the recent past, so it’s not unusual. But it is worth keeping an eye on.

Did we say "global warming?  We meant climate "volatility"

“I don’t know what to make of them,” said [Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)] when asked about the study’s findings. “But climate change is not just about temperatures going up. It’s also about volatility. So, I don’t know.”

“But, overwhelmingly, scientists agree that the climate is becoming more volatile and that climate change is real,” she said.