What we’re reading:

Gore said polar scientists told him Sunday that the latest data “suggest a 75 percent chance the entire polar ice cap will melt in summer within the next five to seven years.”
COPENHAGEN — The final week of the United Nations climate change summit boils down to a battle between President Obama and the self-described “skunk at the picnic.”
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who has called global warming a “hoax,” plans to travel this week to Copenhagen. He’ll stay just long enough — as few as three hours, he says — to tell heads of state that the Senate will not pass an energy bill that would limit greenhouse gas emissions.
China, India among those demanding greater cuts by industrialized world
The Climatic Research Unit at the heart of the ClimateGate scandal has taken down most of the information previously available at its website.
Prior to November’s release of controversial e-mail messages and documents from Britain’s University of East Anglea, there was a separate website for the institution’s CRU that allowed readers to review articles and studies created by and for the Unit.
Now, no matter what link one tries to access via a Google search, it directs you to a page that reads: “Due to the present high volume of visitors to this page, you will shortly be directed to the latest news about CRU on the main University of East Anglia website, or you can go there immediately by clicking on this link.”
By 2050, ocean acidity could increase by 150 percent. This increase is 100 times faster than any change in acidity experienced in the marine environment over the last 20 million years.
The cuts in greenhouse gases offered at the 192-nation climate conference are “clearly not enough” to assure the world it will head off dangerous global warming, a key UN-affiliated scientist said Saturday.
“Current uncertainty about the future of the Kyoto Protocol is creating a lot of mistrust and resentment within these negotiations,”
“We believe a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol is a necessary part of the 2-protocol outcome of Copenhagen, and we support Africa’s demands for this.”
“It would be good to have ministerial consultation on Kyoto Protocol matters, and it would be good if developed countries expressed clearly that they accept the need for at next commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.”
“It’s a package deal of the two tracks in the negotiations, so given the limited amount of time it would be good to have parallel consultations. In addition, there are some linked issues, where coordination needs to happen across the two tracks.”
“The binding character of the Kyoto Protocol gives developing nations the confidence that these talks will not just end as an informal discussion. If we want a fair, ambitious and binding deal we need to keep working both on the Kyoto Protocol and a second protocol.”