How much time do we really have?

OK.  Just about everybody outside the Bush Administration knows that the weather is changing and it's changing quickly.  It seems like every time there's a new computer simulation, the effects of global warming are seen as more prolific and the impact occuring in shorter time frames. 

We all read about what might happen (at the current rate) by the end of the century.  More and more, the reports are projecting what things will look like by 2050 or by 2040.  My own take (and I do not claim to be a climatologist) is that we will see very dramatic changes by 2015 if not sooner.   Already, we are seeing far more class 4 and 5 hurricanes and tornados than ever before.  Tornados, drought and flooding are occuring in the US and other parts of the world that never or rarely experience such weather.  The Mayans believed that the world comes to an end in the year 2012.  Maybe they were on to something. 

I'm not a pessimist, but I do like to think of myself as a realist.  Under our system of democracy and politics, it just might take extreme occurances to become more common for people and politicians to act.  We need to have extreme measures in place to stop and reverse  the damage that we've done.   We will need the major governments of the world, the US, China and India in particular, to mobilize domestic policy away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energies and conservation.  

-Rick