I was scanning headlines this morning and came across a doomy one in the Guardian entitled "World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns."

Yikes. This comes on the heels of another report saying emissions had risen by record amounts in the last year. What in the world is going on?

The headline was about the 2011 World Energy Outlook," a report published today by the International Energy Agency.

The IEA says that if we continue using fossil fuels at our current rates, by 2017 we'll have used up our carbon budget and will cross over the limits of safety. When that happens, climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible. Expect even more extreme weather, say the scientists.

I thought we had until, oh, sometime after I was dead and gone. (I had no plans to depart before 2017, either.)

Maybe these energy scientists are alarmists.

The IEA is considered to be conservative in their estimates, says the Guardian article. "The IEA's data is regarded as the gold standard in emissions and energy, and it is widely regarded as one of the most conservative in outlook – making today's warning all the more stark."

Oh, crud.

Well, what needs to be done? We're resourceful people...

All that has to happen, the article says, is that we make immediate and drastic changes to everything. Each month that goes by and each decision about our infrastructure is critical. Don't add any high carbon buildings, factories or power plants.

In the same article it says that big countries like the US and China aren't planning to do anything anytime soon and other countries are trying to schedule a meeting to update the Kyoto Protocols that expire in 2012. They hope to have a new agreement by 2020.

Arrrgh!

The story ends with a quote from Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science.

"This new report is a final warning that we are perilously close to the point of no return on climate change... As the IEA points out, we have little chance of this if we continue to lock-in fossil fuel sources of energy today. As important as the current economic crisis is, the world needs to recognize that the huge scale of the risks we are facing from climate change also need urgent action. And the window of opportunity for action has almost closed."

Watching the world stumble along these days, it really looks like we aren't going to heed the warnings and won't get the job done. We will go beyond the limits of safety, we'll watch that window of opportunity close, and we will have more extreme weather sooner rather than later. I'd like to be wrong.

The report talks about our shifting energy use and needs and makes projections out to 2035. Things will go on, just under new, less predictable rules and situations.

The world won't end suddenly in 2017. It's more like it's our last chance to reconsider before hopping on an unfamiliar roller coaster. Once the climate coaster departs, we're riding it.

The IEA is holding up a sign saying we don't have to ride, but that decision must be made now.