A law, set in 1990, required the government to develop a full-length report on global warming every four years. The last report was produced in the year 2000. Thursday, May 29, 2008, four years late, prompted by a court order, the white house finally put fourth its report on the different threats that global warming posed for America.

The Climate Science Watch Government Accountability Director said that the government needed to honestly report this information. The Bush administration had no choice but to produce the report required by law.

Why did it take so long? What are they trying to hide? I, and most other Americans, unless they have their heads buried in the sand, agree with the Accountability Director in that the government needs to be more forthcoming with the facts concerning global warming.

The report named several risks to the country such as water shortages due to decreased snow melting, along with other climate-related changes. Another risk associated with global warming, according to the report, was heat-related deaths with the Midwest and Northeast named as the highest risk areas.

The report listed energy shortages as one of the risks threatening the country, because America is predicted to put out billions for more power plants in an effort to cool our heating country. Air conditioning was once thought of as a luxury, but with each passing year, as global warming increases, it has become a life-saving necessity.

Increased death due to wildfires was also mentioned. The wildfire season has already extended by more than two months in the west during the past thirty years. In June 2008, more than eight hundred wild fires were sparked by an intense electrical storm in California.

The report also said there was a high risk of rising sea levels due to polar ice melts along with increased storm surge causing extensive flooding; which would increase insect infestation, resulting in the spread of disease. Scientists said the North Pole could be ice-free by the end of summer, 2008.

The 271 page report is very significant since the Bush administration, for some reason, has opposed it so strongly. One of the scientists that studied the report said, in essence, that global warming has changed our country, and that we can no longer count on the America we've known.

Another climate scientist said the report was very bad news as to what lies ahead. He went on to say that it painted a formidable picture of changes running through

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