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

FROM VOLUME 3, NUMBER 7, JULY 1990

NEWS...
IPCC REPORT COMPLETED

Item #d90jul67

The Scientific Assessment work group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued on May 25, 1990, an executive summary of its report, which finds that the earth will warm significantly in the next century in the absence of action to reduce the accumulation of greenhouse gases. Global average temperature is estimated to increase over five degrees Centigrade by the year 2100, with sea levels rising by 25 inches. To counteract these effects, emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons) must be immediately reduced over 60 percent. Preparation of the report, coordinated by John Houghton of the U.K. Meteorological Office, involved about 200 scientists and was peer-reviewed by 100 scientists.

"UN Panel Points to Global Warming Danger," Chem. Eng. News, p. 6, June 4, 1990. The report prompted U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to pledge reductions of up to 30 percent in Britain's carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2005. U.S. Presidential Science Adviser D. Allen Bromley said the uncertainties regarding both science and economics are still too large for the United States to commit to specific reductions.

"Global Warming `May Distort Carbon Cycle,'" New Scientist, p. 23, May 26, 1990. This and other feedback mechanisms discussed by the IPCC report generally seem likely to enhance greenhouse warming.

"U.N. Global Warming Study Prompts a British Split from U.S. Position," Greenhouse Effect Rep., pp. 48-49, June 1990.