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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2, AUGUST 1988

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
COMMENTARY

Item #d88aug5

"Point-Counterpoint: Thinning on Top," The Environmental Forum, 5, 14-19, Jul./Aug. 1988.

Stratospheric ozone depletion is expected to cause dramatic increases in skin cancer, cataracts, and immunological diseases. It threatens the marine food web, vegetation and important food crops. Is the Montreal Protocol a sufficient response to the problem? Four important perspectives on this issue are presented.

"Moving Forward Together," E.B. Claussen (U.S. EPA). A deputy administrator explains the Environmental Protection Agency's implementation of the protocol.

"Global Emergency," D.D. Doniger (Natural Resour. Defense Council). Dramatic new scientific findings have shown that neither the Protocol nor the EPA regulations go far enough.

"A Sound Framework, A Flawed Regulation," S.J. Shimberg (Senate Comm. Environ. Public Works). Protection of the environment requires elimination of manufactured ozone-depleting substances; urges unilateral action by the U.S.

"Global Cooperation, Not Unilateral Action," J.M. Steed (E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co.). DuPont's position on the CFC/ozone issue has consistently been responsive to the best available scientific information.

Item #d88aug6

"Climate Change, Global Change: What is the Difference?" S.I. Rasool (Off. Space Sci., NASA, Washington, D.C.) Eos, 668, Jun. 21, 1988.

The study of global change is more than trying to predict the weather and climate next year, the primary focus of the World Climate Research Program. In contrast, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) on global change is an interdisciplinary study concerned with the processes that change earth on time scales of decades to centuries, processes in which the mechanisms and driving forces are very different because chemical, biological and geophysical processes are involved.

Item #d88aug7

"Effects of Global Change," R.G. Fleagle (Dept. Atmos. Sci., Univ. Wash., Seattle, WA 98195), Nature, 333(6176), 794, June 30, 1988.

Consequences of large-scale environmental change are beginning to affect policy decisions of business and industry more profoundly than ever before. To respond appropriately corporations now need more than an in-house environmental staff. A better format could utilize an advisory group that has contacts with relevant interdisciplinary research groups and would be able to develop regular international discussions.

Item #d88aug8

"A Second World Climate Conference--Guest Editorial," J.H. Ausubel (Nat. Acad. Eng., 2101 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington DC 20418), Climatic Change, 11, 289-90, Dec. 1987.

A second World Climate Conference could help provide the stimulus for another decade of rapid progress in climate studies and strengthening of national climate programs.

Item #d88aug9

"The Antarctic `Ozone Hole' and Its Possible Global Consequences," H.U. Dütsch (Atmos. Phys. Lab., Fed. Inst. Technology, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland), Environ. Conserv., 14(2), 95-97, Summer 1987.

All the new photochemical schemes to explain ozone depletion agree on the main points. There is very low NOx content in the Antarctic lower stratosphere at the end of the polar night; high concentrations of active chlorine, or of other chemical species from which active chlorine is easily produced by photodissociation after the return of the sun, fuel the photodissociation of ozone. The overall correctness of the photochemical cause of the 'hole' can hardly be doubted, and the depletion of ozone may be considerably stronger than has so far been expected.

Item #d88aug10

"Climate Research Priorities From the Impacts Viewpoint," T.M.L. Wigley (Clim. Res. Unit, Univ. E. Anglia, UK), Clim. Monitor, 16(2), 70-75, May. 1987.

A major workshop on the impacts of climatic change was held in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, Oct. 17-21, 1987. The final recommendations present priorities for climate research based on a perspective which differs somewhat from the viewpoint of the mainstream climatological community. The general recommendations are: detection of greenhouse-gas-induced climatic change at the regional level; validation of general circulation models at the regional level; development of a broader spectrum of scenarios; obtaining sub-gridscale details of climatic change to supplement the coarser resolution GCM scenarios; obtaining information on changes in variability and extreme events; studying inter-relationships between climate, air chemistry and air pollution.