The Washington Post reports today on Chris Field’s presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in which he said: “We are basically looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations.”  Faster development of coal-fired electrical power in developing countries is part of the reason, as are serious positive feedback loops in carbon emissions (release of methane as a result of melting permafrost and reduced capacity of our oceans to remove atmospheric carbon).  This is seriously bad news.  Dr. Field, a professor at Stanford and IPCC author, is among the most credible and authoritative sources for the current state of climate science.  He has guest-lectured for me and for several co-bloggers in our climate law and policy courses, and he knows what he is talking about.  (Hat tip to UCLA Law student Dustin Maghamfar for the Washington Post story).