drilling ice cores to study climate change is probably the only context in which i'm comfortable saying "drill, baby, drill!"

The mere fact that 68,000 year old ice exists is demonstrates that the climate has failed to warm sufficiently to melt it all, even in periods known to have been warmer than current times.

"the climate has failed to warm" - tadchem

As you can see in the following grapic, 68,000 years ago, the earth was deep in the last ice age. Also note that that ice age extended backward in time another 80,000 years.

http://www.planet...emp2.jpg

"will greatly improve our understanding of how past changes in greenhouse gases influenced the global climate"

Seems like an unwarranted assumption, probable bias.
First they need to prove that global climate didn't cause the changes in CO2.

Isotopic analysis of the carbon entering the atmosphere pegged it's origins as fossil carbon, decades ago.

"First they need to prove that global climate didn't cause the changes in CO2." - fpb

Perhaps you have been living on Planet ConservaDopia and didn't get the news.

Perhaps you are just a child who was born yesterday.