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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 3, MARCH 1991

NEWS...
NEWS NOTES

Item #d91mar91

A Dahlem Workshop on Limiting the Greenhouse Effect: Options for Controlling Atmospheric CO₂ Accumulation was held in Berlin in December 1990. The invited participants--energy analysts, economists, political advisors and climatologists--grappled with barriers to effective reduction of greenhouse emissions. One conclusion is that human nature may be a greater obstacle than technology, as evidence by reluctance of consumers to purchase more efficient light bulbs. The following articles extensively discuss concerns at the meeting, including the role of the Third World, "least cost" utility planning, and new energy efficiency centers being set up in Eastern Europe.

Item #d91mar92

"Skeptics and Visionaries Examine Energy Saving," J. Cherfas, Science, pp. 154-156, Jan. 11, 1991.

Item #d91mar93

"The First Steps Out of the Greenhouse," S. Bowler, New Scientist, pp. 45-51, Feb. 16, 1991.

Item #d91mar94

U.S. Global Change Research funding requested by the Administration for fiscal year 1992, up 24 percent over last year, is detailed in the third annual Our Changing Planet budget supplement. Research strategies for the Global Change Research Program have been further detailed in a report by the Committee on Global Change of the National Research Council. (See Reports/United States, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Mar. 1991.)

Item #d91mar95

Smoke from Kuwaiti oil well fires should cause no prolonged effects on the Earth's climate, except for the relatively small increase in CO₂ emissions. This conclusion was reached independently by modelers at the British Meteorological Office and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Science, p. 372, Jan. 23, 1991; Nature, p. 96, Jan. 10). The British team said however that surface temperature could be lowered locally downwind, and the Indian monsoon could be altered. The British Overseas Development Association has been engaging agricultural consultants to determine how to deal with possible effects on crops in India (New Scientist, p. 24, Feb. 2).

Item #d91mar96

Substitutes for CFC Solvents will be easier to find through a new database being established by the Industry Cooperative for Ozone Layer Protection. Ozonet will eventually be available in 35 countries, providing information on suppliers, technical data and legislation to users along with free software and manuals. Contact ICOLP at 1440 New York Ave., S. 300, Washington DC 20005.

Item #d91mar97

CO₂ emission targets adopted so far by 22 industrial nations may only cut the predicted global temperature rise by half a degree by the year 2100. This conclusion is the result of calculations arranged by Global Environmental Change Report (pp. 1-3, Dec. 7, 1990) in conjunction with researchers at World Resources Institute and the University of East Anglia. (See also Nature, p. 668, Dec. 20-27.)

Item #d91mar98

"Government Policies in Amazon Led to Widespread Deforestation," Intl. Environ. Rptr., p. 75, Feb. 13, 1991. A government-authorized report has acknowledged that governmental policies and subsidies of the 1970s and early 1980s that promoted land for agriculture and cattle ranching were responsible for deforestation.

Item #d91mar99

"A Sea Change in the Sahel," F. Pearce, New Scientist, pp. 31-32, Feb. 2, 1991. Discusses the concerns of climatologists and others that drought there is closely related to regional temperatures, and that global warming may reveal itself in a serious onset of drought in the Sahel.

Item #d91mar100

"Huge Increases for Global Environment?" D. Swinbanks, Nature, p. 94, Jan. 10, 1991. Japan's Ministry of Industry and Technology (MITI) and Science and Technology Agency (SCA) are likely to receive substantial new funds for space and global environment research in the 1991 budget.