Carbon Dioxide and
Carbon dioxide is an essential ingredient in photosynthesis.
In the cells of leaves carbon dioxide from the air mixes
with water drawn from plant roots. Charged by light
from the sun, molecules in these leaves are transformed
into oxygen and carbohydrates (sugars) which are the food
of plants and all who feed on them. In other words,
carbon dioxide is essential to human survival.
On alert. Certainly
there are enough climatic changes around the globe to bring
Earth's residents to alert. Spring 2000 in the United States
was the hottest spring on record. The 1990s were the warmest
decade in a millennium. There is a heat wave on the Antarctic
Peninsula. Glaciers are retreating. Animal habitats are
warming. The four horsemen of global warming are Thaw,
Drought, Storms, and Floods. An excellent web site is
The issue of debate,
however, is whether we humans create too much carbon dioxide
which overly insulates the earth and leads to global warming
(greenhouse effect). That is, carbon dioxide and
other gasses act like the glass in a greenhouse and hold
in heat. That we create carbon dioxide is beyond doubt.
Each year U.S. energy use pours about five and one-half
billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Although
the United States has 4 percent of the planet's population,
it produces 25 percent or more of greenhouse gasses. An
interesting history book on point is Greenhouse
by Gale E. Christianson (Walker & Company, N.Y., 1999).
Roughly three-quarters of
human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide come from fossil
fuel combustion and the other one-fourth comes from the
burning of forests in slash-and-burn agriculture and development.
The effects of carbon dioxide emissions are the subject
of intense scientific examination.
Does-so view. Representative
of the majority view that global warming results from these
emissions are: http://www.epa.gov/...
and the World Watch Institute at http://www.worldwatch.org/
and the Union of Concerned Scientists at http://www.ucsusa.org/
. A wealth of source materials can be found at http://www.globalchange.org/
. Does-not view. The contrarian position can
be found at http://www.globalwarming.org/
and at http://www.marshall.org/.
Why the conflicting views?
Beyond the political aspect of the global warming issue,
the underlying science leads to opposing conclusions.
Why? The principal scientific tools for studying climate
change associated with greenhouse gasses are global climate
models. These are mathematical models which
mimic the fluid dynamics and physics of Earth's atmosphere,
oceans, and land surface. There are variations among the
results and predictions produced by these models. Most models'
results are plausible and defensible but doubts remain.
Given those differences
scientists from around the planet have convened to reach
a consensus on greenhouse effects. The results are
published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPPC). A well known and once controversial 1996 statement
by the IPPC was that "the balance of evidence suggests
a discernible human influence on climate." IPPC's Third
Assessment in 2001 was bleaker than the earlier statement,
suggesting even higher global temperatures in the decades
At the political level in late 1997 representatives from
many countries met in Kyoto, Japan, to adopt
limitations on greenhouse gas emissions.
The agreement was designed
to strengthen the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, which was signed by over 150 countries,
including the United States, at the1992 Earth Summit in
Rio de Janeiro. At Rio the most industrialized nations agreed
to the voluntary aim of returning their greenhouse emissions
to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
In the Kyoto Protocol the
developed nations agreed to limit their greenhouse emissions
to levels emitted in 1990. The U. S. agreed to reduce
greenouse emissions from 1990 levels during the period 2008
to 2012. Congress has not ratified the protocol.
In early 2001 President Bush abandoned the Kyoto treaty
and the Europeans were angry with him. His language was
reminiscent of the America First stridency last prevalent
in the 1980s.
Rules to govern the Kyoto Protocol
were agreed upon by 178 nations in Bonn, Germany, in July
2001. Major changes were made to ease the burden on the
U.S. -- carbon "sinks" [forests] to offset emissions
and emissions trading. The U.S. would not budge from its
position and its delegate was booed. Fifty-five countries
producing a total of 55 percent of the industrialized world's
emissions must ratify the treaty for it to take force.
Greenhouse gas producers.
Americans produce almost one-fourth of gasses associated
with global waming. The average Anerican consumes twice
as much energy as the average European, and the emission
of green house gasses is about twice as high per capita
in the U.S. as in Europe.
power plants pump 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide
into the air each year, twice the amount emitted by cars.
Prior to leaving office,
President Clinton proposed regulations for the first time
limiting emissions of carbon dioxide by power plants. He
suggested a "cap and trade" system, under
which the federal government would set a national limit
on emissions, and divide pollution among the power plants.
However, President Bush in early 2001 capitulated to the
wishes of his political supporters and refused to regulate
carbon dioxide. For the sordid details the July 22, 2001,
The New York Times Magazine devoted 11 pages with
big color photos. The front cover's headline in letters
1 1/2 inches tall reads: "How Coal Got Its Glow Back."
policy. While there are some prominent industries voluntarily
reducing emission of greenhouse gases, by and large the
old paradigm prevails. Produce and pollute; it's good for
business. With President Bush's cave-in to the oil, natural
gas, and coal mining industries, it is hard to define America's
global warming policy. The New York Times commented:
"These were hasty and ill-conceived decisions that
have essentially left the United States without a policy
on a matter of global importance."
of greenhouse gasses can be accomplished by a variety
of methods. Saving trees (increasing biomass)
is being tested in Belize by The Nature Conservancy ["carbon
sequestration"]. A summary of ideas is at: http://swhite.me.washington.edu/...
The federal Department of
Energy is doing research on how to cut greenhouse
gas emissions and how to store carbon dioxide such as storing
them as carbonates. One of its research labs is the
National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown. An
emerging view is that the quickest way to slow global warming
is not to go after carbion dioxide emissions first but to
cut other heat-trapping greenhouse gasses first, such
as the particle haze that accompanies the burning of fossil
Last updated on Tuesday, July 24, 2001