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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 5, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1992

PERIODICALS...
ARTICLES

Item #d92jan87

"Snow Has Secrets to Tell," J. Carey, National Wildlife, 4-9, Dec. 1991-Jan. 1992. Explains briefly how scientists hope to determine causes of past and possible present changes in the Earth's climate by analyzing the chemical content of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica.

Item #d92jan88

In Coal Voice, Nov.-Dec. 1991 (Nat. Coal Assoc., 1130 17th St. NW, Washington DC 20036):

"No Regrets: Taking the Pulse of Planet Earth," D.A. Bromley, 6-8. The White House science advisor details the administration's unique approach to climate change policy and tells why it should be implemented.

"The United Nations and Climate Policy," J. Shlaes, 10-12. Explains the UN's emerging role in successfully influencing the climate debate.

"No Consensus on Climate," S.F. Singer, 28-29. Results of a recent survey of scientists involved in the IPCC report throw into question the consensus claimed in that report's executive summary.

Item #d92jan89

"Global Pollution's Silver Lining," P. Michaels, New Scientist, 40 ff., Nov. 23, 1991. (Some pages from this and the following article by Strangeways are interleaved in an apparent printing error.)

Discusses the extent to which recent analyses of temperature records support common notions of greenhouse warming. Warming might occur mostly at night, which would benefit vegetation, as would elevated CO₂ levels; there is evidence that some plants have already begun to adapt. Cites results suggesting that sulfate particles from fossil fuel combustion could be offsetting warming from elevated greenhouse gases, providing time to develop solutions less disruptive than massive reductions in CO₂ emissions.

"Is Climate Change Already Giving Us Greater Maize Yields?" by D. Stooksbury (p. 48) gives brief results of crop-climate modeling. (See related correspondence, ibid., p. 58, Dec. 14.)

Item #d92jan90

"Gaps in the Climate Map," I. Strangeways, ibid., 42 ff.

Surveys the deficiencies of instruments that have provided the historic record of climate and deficiencies in the record such as spatial gaps. Such problems influence what we can deduce from the measurements about changes in climate. Unless the state of ground-based instrumentation is improved, we may be trying to predict what climate might do, while neglecting to find out what it actually does.

Item #d92jan91

"History of the Montreal Protocol's Ozone Fund," R. Bowser, Intl. Environ. Rptr., 636-640, Nov. 20, 1991. Describes the history, significance and structure of the Interim Multilateral Fund established in June 1990 as a precedent for North-South cooperation.

Item #d92jan92

"Saving Seeds for Future Generations," A. Gibbons, Science, 804, Nov. 8, 1991.

Swiss-style banks for seeds would allow nations to deposit and withdraw in complete privacy to protect against threats to their genetic resources, including climate change. The influential Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research recently backed a new international approach to saving germ plasm.

Item #d92jan93

"The Ozone Layer and Homo Sapiens," a four-page pull-out Science Capsule in EarthQuest, Fall 1991, gives a concise review of scientific understanding suitable for classroom and similar uses. Contact OIES, Univ. Corp. Atmos. Res., POB 3000, Boulder CO 80307 (303-497-1682); no charge.

Item #d92jan94

"Trailing the Blaze," P. Sinclair, Geographical Mag., 8-11, Aug. 1991.

Climate change and accompanying drought from global warming could subject Britain to increased threat of fires in forests and grasslands. Unlike the Mediterranean area, native vegetation has little resistance to drought and fire, and the nation would do well to take steps to prepare.

Item #d92jan95

"Trading Coalbed Methane for Carbon Dioxide," L.S. Greenberger, Publ. Util. Fortnightly, pp. 26-27, Aug. 15, 1991. U.S. Representative Jim Cooper and the Center for Clean Air Policy are promoting a measure that would allow electric utilities to offset CO₂ emissions by using methane from coal mining, which is often allowed to escape into the atmosphere.

Item #d92jan96

"Producing Natural Gas from Coal Seams," B. Levy, A. Rosenlieb, ibid., pp. 53-54, June 15, 1991. Removing methane from coal seams before mining has several advantages for air pollution, safety, improved coal extraction.