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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 2, NUMBER 6, JUNE 1989

REPORTS...
GENERAL AND POLICY

Item #d89jun16

Reducing Ozone-Depleting Chlorine and Bromine Accumulations in the Stratosphere--A Critique of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Analysis and Recommendations, A. Makhijani, A. Makhijani, A. Bickel, 41 pp., April 1989. A joint project of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (6935 Laurel Ave., Takoma Park MD 20912; 301-270-5500) and the Environmental Policy Institute/Friends of the Earth.

A critique of the 1988 EPA report Future Concentrations of Stratospheric Chlorine and Bromine (Global Climate Change Digest, REPORTS, Nov. 1988), timed to influence technical policy debates at and beyond the May 1989 Helsinki meeting on the Montreal Protocol. It considers the choice of 1985 concentrations of chlorine as a policy goal to be arbitrary, recommending instead a level 25 to 30 times less. International agreements should establish a world-wide limit on total ozone depletion capacity so that substitutes for CFCs do not increase ozone destruction. A glaring omission from EPA's policy is carbon tetrachloride, which must be included in controlled chemicals. Phaseout of all substances must be faster than proposed.

Item #d89jun17

Cooling the Greenhouse--Vital First Steps To Combat Global Warming, T. Stoel, J. Scherr et al., 72 pp., 1989. Natural Resources Defense Council (1350 New York Ave. NW, S. 300, Washington DC 20005; 202-783-7800), $5.

Recommends a first step for the United States of reducing carbon dioxide emissions at least 20% below 1987 levels by the year 2000; other measures such as CFC reduction, energy efficiency and prevention of forest destruction have other benefits as well as reducing global warming. Describes detailed ways of accomplishing these measures, and recommends a global treaty.

Item #d89jun18

As the World Burns: Documenting America's Failure to Address the Ozone Crisis, B. Walsh, A. Makhijani et al., 14 pp., April 1989. Campaign for Safe Alternatives to Protect the Ozone Layer; request from U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 215 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington DC 20003 (202-546-9707).

Outlines the platform of the Campaign, an alliance of grassroots activists committed to comprehensive legislation in the 101st U.S. Congress. It calls for rapid phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals, a policy of safe alternatives, prohibition of preventable releases of ozone-depleting chemicals, and protection of workers and communities who will bear the brunt of this rapid industrial transformation.

Item #d89jun19

Controlling Carbon Dioxide Emissions--A CRS Report for Congress (89-157 ENR), A. Abel, M.E. Holt, L.B. Parker, 35 pp., Mar. 1989. Request from your legislator, or from Congressional Research Service (Library of Congress, Washington DC 20540).

Alternatives for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by the years 2000 to 2010, in order of estimated potential, are: 1) clean coal technology and fuel switching (especially natural gas use and coal gasification and fuel cells); 2) new nuclear capacity; 3) technologies for removing carbon dioxide from power plant emissions, none of which have yet received full-scale testing. The last option requires development of alternatives for disposing of removed carbon dioxide.

Item #d89jun20

Stratospheric Ozone--EPA's Safety Assessment of Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Chemicals (GAO/RCED-89-49), 66 pp., Feb. 1989. U.S. General Accounting Office, POB 6015, Gaithersburg MD 20877 (202-275-6241); no charge for up to five copies.

At the request of the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (John Dingell), the GAO reviewed EPA's assessment of the safety of chemical substitutes and its investigation of techniques for CFC and halon conservation and recycling. It recommends that EPA use the provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act to require producers to provide their unpublished health and safety studies, and to notify EPA before existing chemicals are put to significant use, so their safety can be reviewed and their use quickly controlled if necessary. Projects sponsored by EPA are appropriately focused on the major uses of ozone-depleting chemicals, but it is difficult to assess the effect these projects will have on reducing such use.

Item #d89jun21

Climate Crisis, P. Isely et al., 20 pp., 1988. World Constitution and Parliament Assoc., 1480 Hoyt St., S. 31, Lakewood CO 80215 (303-233-3548).

Outlines the Association's view of the impending climatic effects of carbon dioxide emissions based largely on the theories of John Hamaker, which include a premature end of the current interglacial period.