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A NASA image released December 3, 2013 of the Transantarctic Mountains. NASA observes Earth's polar ice to characterize annual changes in thickness of sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets.

( AFP PHOTO/NASA/Michael Studinger )

Ho-hum, another panel of the nation’s best scientists has concluded that climate change is going to cause immense human suffering and environmental damage. What else is new?

The latest comes from the National Research Council, a nonpartisan private group considered by many to be the nation's most prestigious scientific association. Its latest report includes a hair-raising description of the damage that's already been done, and a warning that it is certain to get much worse.

The report makes for interesting reading. We all know that the arctic ice caps are melting, that sea levels are rising, and that Hurricane Sandy-style storms are becoming more common. But did you know that the beetle infestation threatening the Pine Barrens has also ravaged tens of millions of acres of forests in the American West and Canada? The beetles used to be killed off by cold winters, but no more.

As for the future, the report helpfully discounts some of the worst-case scenarios. A sudden and catastrophic temperature drop, as depicted in the movie "The Day After," is unlikely. Good to know.

But the accelerating pace of extinctions, the report concludes, is shaping up to be the sixth great mass extinction in the Earth’s history. Many of the world’s great coral reefs are destined to die in the coming decades, even if we change course. We face a "moderately likely" risk over the next century of creating huge dead zones in the ocean without enough oxygen to support life. And rain-fed agriculture could be devastated, creating food shortages and political chaos.

Sadly, the people likely to suffer the most are the poor in developing countries, who did nothing to create the problem.

This growing body of evidence has done nothing to change the political deadlock in Washington. Most Republicans see willful ignorance of this threat as a measure of commitment to small government. They are aided and abetted by Democrats from coal states who won’t risk their careers by looking beyond the parochial interests of their districts.

What will change this? Gallup reports that the portion of Americans who worry about climate change a "great deal" or "fair amount" has grown from 49 percent to 59 percent in the past three years. A new report from the environmental data firm CDP shows that several large American corporations are incorporating the cost of some type of carbon tax into their planning models. And as the evidence accumulates, it grows more difficult to believe the strained arguments about sun spots and leftists conspiracies from the flat-Earth crowd that runs the House.

So stay tuned. Someday this political standoff will break. Because nature is certain to press its case.

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