Last Updated:
February 28, 2007

GCRIO Program Overview

Library 
Our extensive collection of documents.

Privacy Policy

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

FROM VOLUME 3, NUMBER 4, APRIL 1990

NEWS...
NEWS NOTES

Item #d90apr117

"EPA's Reilly Addresses Clean Air, Climate Change, Cabinet Post Issues," L.R. Ember, Chem. Eng. News, pp. 28-29, Feb. 26, 1990. A discussion of the EPA Administrator's attempts, especially after the President's address to the IPCC in February, to maintain his environmental credibility while serving a president who wants to balance economic and environmental goals.

Item #d90apr118

"More Research Needed," G.C. Anderson, Nature, p. 684, Feb. 22, 1990. An interview with U.S. Energy Secretary James Watson concerning the Bush Administration's position that two more years of research are needed before the science of climate modeling is capable of guiding environmental policy.

Item #d90apr119

"Global Warming Continues in 1989," R.A. Kerr, Science, p. 521, Feb. 2, 1990. Analysis of surface temperature data by climatologists at the University of East Anglia and the British Meteorological Office indicates that 1989 continued the warming trend of the last 15 years, despite the appearance of cool water in the tropical Pacific; greenhouse warming is a possibility. (Similar results were found by workers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, according to Science News, p. 92, Feb. 10.)

Item #d90apr120

"Ozone Loss Will Hit Health and Food, Says UN Study," J. Sinclair, New Scientist, p. 27, Feb. 3, 1990. A draft report by the UNEP International Committee on the Effects of Ozone Depletion finds that effects will extend far beyond increased skin cancers, although further research is needed. Food production from land and sea will drop, and the greenhouse effect will be accelerated because populations of carbon-fixing phytoplankton on the sea surface will decrease. Other effects include weakening of the human immune system and increased occurrence of cataracts, air pollution, and materials degradation.

Item #d90apr121

"Rising Sea Levels Could Affect 300 Million," J. Sinclair, ibid., p. 27, Jan. 20, 1990. A report being prepared by the IPCC coastal impacts working group estimates that a sea level rise of one meter would affect up to 300 million people; the cost-benefit ratios of various options for adaptation differ greatly depending on each country's circumstances.