Boston Plans For 'Near-Term Risk' Of Rising Tides | Minnesota Public Radio News

Boston is calling the projected sea level rise a near-term risk. Projections range from 2 to 6 feet here by the end of the century, depending on how fast polar ice melts.

Add to that a hurricane storm surge, and some models show parts of Boston under 10 feet of water. Researchers have told the city that, by 2050, that could happen as often as every two to three years.

Americans Having Fewer Babies Crimping Consumer Spending - Bloomberg

Americans have had fewer babies each year since the 2008 financial meltdown, with births falling to a 12-year low in 2011, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The low birth rate and reduced immigration resulted in the smallest gain in population since World War II, which may hurt spending on everything from Huggies diapers to pregnancy kits, child care and education.

Todd Akin is a moron on climate change too | Grist

[From Akin's website] Although some of the physics and meteorology surrounding climate is well understood, the question of predicting future climate trends as well as man’s ability to definitively influence them is still an active field of scientific research. Moreover, despite our desire for complete certainty, we must understand that global climate is very complex phenomena. No one variable can be taken as the sole driver of climate and there exist cycles within cycles of meteorological variability. [Editor's note: blah blah blah.] Scientists state that the planet has gone through many natural heating and cooling cycles over the last thousand years.