| Searing summer temperatures are shattering | | | | scenarios and begin to reduce our greenhouse |
| records across much of the northern | | | | gas emissions, we are going to get big |
| hemisphere. Some European nuclear power | | | | climate change." |
| plants have cut output because river water | | | | |
| used to cool reactors is too warm. Forest | | | | But scientists say arresting global warming |
| fires are breaking out in Europe and the | | | | is a daunting challenge. For one thing, |
| United States. Are these signs of global | | | | carbon dioxide has a lifetime of 50 to 100 |
| warming? | | | | years in the atmosphere. Rutgers University |
| | | | climate researcher Anthony Broccoli says |
| Scientists say no single weather event can be | | | | ocean warming compounds the problem. "Heat is |
| attributed to warming. But they say those | | | | going into the ocean and gradually the effect |
| incidents are consistent with it and may | | | | of that heat going into the ocean would be to |
| worsen unless humans stop pumping greenhouse | | | | make the climate warmer, even if we stopped |
| gases into the atmosphere. Skeptics argue | | | | raising atmospheric CO-2 levels today." |
| that global warming is part of the natural | | | | |
| climate cycle. They say whatever humans | | | | The 1997 Kyoto Protocol commits more than 120 |
| contribute to it will not cause it to be | | | | signing nations to limiting greenhouse gas |
| irreversible. VOA's David McAlary examines | | | | emissions to 1990 levels. The United States |
| the issues. | | | | is not part of the agreement because |
| | | | President Bush withdrew the country from it |
| In the past year, several scientific reports | | | | soon after taking office in 2001. |
| have alerted the world to increasing glacier | | | | |
| melting in Alaska, Greenland, and Antarctica, | | | | This was the correct move, according to Myron |
| reducing habitat for polar bears and other | | | | Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise |
| forms of life. | | | | Institute, a Washington public policy |
| | | | research group promoting government |
| The habitat for beetles that ravage trees has | | | | deregulation. "There is just so much |
| expanded from the normally warm U.S. | | | | exaggeration involved in these claims about |
| southwest into the evergreen forests of | | | | the impacts of climate change." |
| British Columbia. | | | | |
| | | | Ebell does not believe global warming is a |
| Warmer tropical waters seem to be bleaching | | | | serious threat. But he says even if it were, |
| coral reefs. | | | | the Kyoto Protocol is bad politics. He |
| | | | believes restricting energy use to reduce |
| The general scientific view is that these | | | | greenhouse gas emissions will hurt national |
| changes are caused by a heat-trapping blanket | | | | economies. "All of this effort is going for |
| of carbon dioxide and other gases in the | | | | nothing. The reason I believe that is because |
| atmosphere emitted by coal, natural gas, and | | | | the world cannot afford to go on the kind of |
| gasoline burning. | | | | energy diet that the Kyoto Protocol is the |
| | | | first step of." |
| Richard Somerville of the Scripps Institution | | | | |
| of Oceanography in San Diego says the current | | | | Richard Somerville at the Scripps Institution |
| warming trend is different from ones that | | | | of Oceanography agrees that the Kyoto |
| have occurred earlier in Earth's history. "We | | | | Protocol is flawed. But he believes the flaw |
| know enough now to be able to say that the | | | | is its insufficient limits on greenhouse gas |
| current warming, the warming that we've seen | | | | emissions. He says they will make only a |
| in the last decades of the 20th century, is | | | | negligible difference, but argues that the |
| primarily due to human causes." | | | | accord is better than nothing. "Kyoto keeps |
| | | | the issue alive. One of the advantages of |
| The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on | | | | signing Kyoto is it gets you to the point |
| Climate Change says the atmosphere has 30 | | | | where you can look past Kyoto, where the |
| percent more carbon dioxide than a century | | | | nations of the world can come together with |
| ago and Earth's average surface temperature | | | | the experience of Kyoto, which involves large |
| has risen nearly one degree Celsius in that | | | | industries, and decide what does it make |
| time. The group warns that it can be expected | | | | sense to try next?" |
| to go up much more in the next 100 years -- | | | | |
| between one-and-a-half and nearly six | | | | But opponents of the Kyoto accord say the |
| degrees. | | | | next step should be nature's. Myron Ebell |
| | | | says glaciers have been melting since the end |
| The panel says this could mean a sea level | | | | of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, |
| rise of up to one meter by the end of this | | | | yet people have adapted. He argues that |
| century, possibly engulfing coastal regions | | | | global warming has benefits, such as a longer |
| and island countries. | | | | growing season and hardier crops. |
| | | | |
| U.S. space agency climate expert James Hansen | | | | "Carbon dioxide is necessary for plants to |
| was one of the first scientists to warn of | | | | photosynthesize, so if there is more carbon |
| global warming in the 1980s. He says the | | | | dioxide in the atmosphere, plants should grow |
| world is nearing the time when it cannot be | | | | more quickly, more vigorously and they should |
| reversed. "We're getting very close to a | | | | be more resistant to things like drought," |
| tipping point in the climate system. If we | | | | says Ebell. |
| don't get out of our business-as-usual | | | | |