Climate October Surprise? -  could climate change be a thing of violent swiftness? New research indicates it took only months for Europe to freeze solid 12,800 years ago. This new analysis  is showing that Europe froze not in a decade—as previously thought from analysis of Greenland ice cores—but in less than 12 months, when a giant freshwater lake - its remnant is the Hudson Bay - burst its banks and flooded the North Atlantic with billions of gallons of cold water, shutting down the Gulf Stream that keeps Europe warm. This sudden freezing terminated the Native American Clovis culture, the dominant culture in North America at the time, and killed off many of the early human in inhabitants of Europe, which was covered with ice, too. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years.If you thought you could miss all the major climate change effects, surprise! Get out your winter duds and show shoes!

Speaking to the Economist recently, Gov. Tim Pawlenty  told reporters that he questions the science underpinning climate change. Pawlenty explained that while the earth might be warming, it is unclear “to what extent that is the result of natural causes.” As ThinkProgress has noted, Pawlenty has veered sharply to the right to appease a right-wing, tea party base.  In Dec. 2006 Pawlenty laid out an ambitious clean energy program for Minnesotans to reduce their use of fossil fuels 15 percent by 2015. Now in November 2009 - it's tea party time.  Or presidential ambition time.