Guardian: The global warming debate entered a new phase in 2007. February saw the first of three new reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), setting out the most recent state of the science of global warming. Not only did it confirm earlier assessments linking human activities to alterations in climatic patterns, it set out how the problem is more urgent than previously believed. This new and more alarming science thankfully seemed to have immediate political …