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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 4, NUMBER 8, AUGUST 1991

REPORTS...
GENERAL INTEREST AND POLICY

Item #d91aug40

Reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group Reports (EN-7374), 65 pp., June 1991. Charge to organizations not eligible for EPRI membership $200. Order from EPRI (Electric Power Res. Inst.), Research Reports Ctr., POB 50490, Palo Alto CA 94303 (415-965-4081).

Separately completed reviews of the three working group reports are combined into one publication to assist electric industry executives and environmental affairs staff in formulating a perspective on the IPCC findings. The individual reviews were prepared by C. Hakkarinen of EPRI (scientific assessment), B. Hood of Science and Policy Associates Inc. (impacts), and J. Darmstadter of Resources for the Future (response strategies). The executive summary for this combined document concludes that overall, the reports successfully compile a wide body of knowledge and accommodate a wide spectrum of scientific opinion. As input to the policymaking process, however, they lack the necessary conceptual unity and analytical cohesiveness, partly because they were developed in parallel without a common framework. Individual chapters within reports vary in quality and, perhaps most seriously, conclusions in the Policymakers Summary may not follow from the body of the technical reports.

Item #d91aug41

Drowning the National Heritage: Climate Change and U.S. Coastal Biodiversity, W.V. Reid, M.C. Trexler, 60 pp., Mar. 1991; $12.50. World Resour. Inst. Publications, POB 4852, Hampden Sta., Baltimore MD 21211 (301-338-6963).

Evaluates the status of coastal biodiversity, already under pressure from pollution, sedimentation, landfilling and other stresses, and the potential impacts of climatic change. Analyzes various policy responses and recommends immediate actions to protect the biological wealth of coastal ecosystems.

Item #d91aug42

Global Warming: Do We Know Enough to Act? (Pub. No. 104), S.F. Singer, 21 pp., Mar. 1991. Available (no charge) from Ctr. Study American Business, Washington Univ., Campus Box 1208, St. Louis MO 63130 (314-889-5630).

Finds that the recent IPCC summary ignores valid scientific objections to the theoretical predictions of global warming. There is major disagreement about future temperature changes and available evidence indicates that as greenhouse gases rise, their net may be beneficial. Panicky policy responses at this point would be a mistake, and worldwide caps on CO₂ emissions would be seen as a scheme to stop economic development in some countries. Pending better understanding, the U.S. should implement policies that have other benefits such as energy conservation, efficiency increases, and the use of nonfossil fuels.

Item #d91aug43

Least-Cost Climatic Stabilization (E91-8), A. Lovins, H. Lovins, 74 pp., Mar. 1991; $20. Rocky Mountain Inst., 1739 Snowmass Creek Rd., Snowmass CO 81654.

This semi-technical survey paper received attention at the Dahlem Conference held in December in Berlin (Global Climate Change Digest, News Notes, Mar. 1991) but was held for publication until March 1991. Reviews in detail state-of-the-art literature on energy efficiency, renewable and alternative energy supply, sustainable farming and forestry, CFC reduction, and actions that can simultaneously abate more than one cause of global warming. Analyzes implementation methods for three types of society--OECD, formerly planned economies, and developing--and discusses possible synergisms. Shows that major abatement of greenhouse emissions is possible at zero net cost or better.

Item #d91aug44

Global Climate Change: The Role of Technology Transfer, 1991. Available from Dept. Trade and Industry, 151 Buckingham Palace Rd., London SW1W 9SS, UK. Prepared by Touche Ross Management Consultants (London) for the U.K. government.

Item #d91aug45

The Ocean's Role in Global Change: The Contemporary System--An Overview of Major Research Programs, Ocean Studies Board, Nat. Res. Council, 10 pp., 1990; no charge. National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington DC 20418 (800-624-6242 or 202-334-3313).

This nontechnical summary describes such programs as the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study. Access to necessary satellite sensors is key to these programs, and the delay of these sensors is already reducing the value of shipboard data collection.