The discovery that volcanic emissions have cooled the Earth significantly during the past decade implies that the heating effect per ton of CO₂ is stronger than the estimate from a year ago.

In effect, our boat has been drifting slowly towards the waterfall, and we just discovered that one engine was on and trying to push us away for the past decade. That implies the current is faster than we thought.

The analogy is limited. The current in this case is the result of our greenhouse gas emissions, and we could reduce them greatly if we take bold measures.

The increase in Antarctic sea ice is caused by other effects of global heating, including the slowly accelerating melting of the ice cap.

Cities and towns in California are trying desperate measures to conserve water.

The US broke a 1990 commitment by pushing NATO to the borders of Russia. Putin's adventurism is partly a response to this.

If the Malaysian Airlines flight crashed, and if 239 people on board were killed, that's less than 2 hours' death toll for cars crashes.

But the bigger danger of cars may be that they encourage people to get less exercise.

In September 2001, car crashes killed more Americans than terrorist attacks did. Terrorists have killed only a handful of Americans since then, but cars do it again every month. So why are Americans so scared of terrorists and not scared of cars?

Partly it is due to human psychological tendencies. Many victims from one event attract more attention than many separate events with the same total number of victims. Violence attracts attention too. Conversely, whether you have a car crash is partly under your own control, which reduces the fear caused by that danger.

This is exacerbated by the mainstream media's exploitation of fear of terrorists, and by the written and voice announcements in trains and buses reminding us to be very afraid of the (probably nonexistent) terrorists.