"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," the Nobel winner Steven Chu told LA Times reporter Jim Tankersley.

Chu sees public education as a key strategy to fight global warming, along with billions for alternative energy, a national RPS, and carbon cap-and-trade legislation. He said the threat of warming is keeping policymakers focused on alternatives to fossil fuels. But he said public awareness needs to catch up.

Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and global-warming skeptic, made a statement imploring Chu to take note of the "real-world data, new studies and the growing chorus of international scientists" that question climate claims.

A barbershop quartet's broken record does not a chorus sing.

"California farms, vineyards in peril from warming, U.S. energy secretary warns"