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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 10, OCTOBER 1992

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
GENERAL INTEREST, POLICY, COMMENTARY

Item #d92oct1

Two items from Environment, 34(7), Sep. 1992:

"Dealing with Pollution," R.N. Stavins (Kennedy Sch. Govt., Harvard Univ., Cambridge MA 02138), B.W. Whitehead, 6-11, 29-41. Market-based regulations focus on controlling a region's overall pollution rather than individual polluters, resulting in lower overall costs compared to the conventional "command and control" approach. Discusses the use of pollution charges to reduce CO₂ emissions, and motor vehicle efficiency.

"Report on Reports: Global Environmental Change: Understanding the Human Dimensions," reviewed by S. Rayner (Battelle, Pacific Northwest Labs., 901 D St. SW, Washington, DC 20024), 25-28. Several features of the recent U.S. National Research Council report prevent it from being a state-of-the-art account of knowledge relevant to basic research on the topic. Instead of the recommended university-run national centers of research, collaboration between universities and existing national laboratories could accomplish the same goals at lower cost. (A rebuttal of this review by O.R. Young and P.C. Stern and a reply by Rayner appear on pp. 2-3.)

Item #d92oct2

"The Climate Change Convention: An Assessment," M. Grubb (Royal Inst. Intl. Affairs, 10 St. James's Sq., London SW1 4LE, UK), Intl. Environ. Rptr., 540-543, Aug. 12, 1992.

Analyzes in detail the wording, goals and potential of the convention signed by over 150 nations in Rio. Concludes that it establishes a regime of considerable potential force, given time, and if sufficient international consensus develops to use it as such.

Item #d92oct3

"To Market, To Market," J.I. Lieberman (U.S. Senator for State of Connecticut; Senate Environ. & Public Works Committee), Issues Sci. Technol., 8(4), 25-29, Summer 1992.

Explains why making CO₂ emissions a marketable commodity is a more effective way to reduce them than regulations or carbon taxes. The author describes the CO₂ Offset Policy Efficiency Act he has cosponsored in the U.S. Senate.

Item #d92oct4

"Improving the Efficiency of Policies to Reduce CO₂ Emissions," J.D. Scheraga (U.S. EPA, 401 M St. SW, Rm. 3220-Mall, Washington DC 20460), N.A. Leary, Energy Policy, 20(5), 394-404, May 1992.

Examines issues related to implementing energy taxes and integrating various policy tools, and places the analysis in a broad context that focuses on all greenhouse gases, not just CO₂. Emphasizes the importance of considering practical implementation concerns when identifying climate change policies. A piecemeal approach is likely to be inefficient and needlessly costly.

Item #d92oct5

"Methane Reductions: Implications for Global Warming and Atmospheric Chemical Change," A.M. Thompson (NASA-Goddard, Greenbelt MD 20771), K.B. Hogan, J.S. Hoffman, Atmos. Environ., 26A(14), 2665-2668, Oct. 1992.

Atmospheric methane concentrations have more than doubled over the last two centuries. This increase may contribute to global warming, enhance tropospheric ozone formation, suppress the OH radical, and affect stratospheric ozone. Calculations show that stabilization of methane could reduce projected temperature increases and possibly mitigate tropospheric ozone increases due to rising methane levels.

Item #d92oct6

"Ecological Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come," A.A. Berryman (Dept. Entomol., Washington State Univ., Pullman WA 99164), M.A. Valenti et al., Trends Ecol. Evolution, 7(8), 268-270, Aug. 1992.

Global warming and other environmental problems have brought us to a crossroads, where those who patiently await the reactions of global Gaia are pitted against biotechnologists, who would design and build new ecosystems. Ecological engineering offers some promise of solutions, if it can integrate the practical sides of ecosystem, landscape, community and population ecology with relevant concepts from the engineering sciences.

Item #d92oct7

"The GCM Credibility Gap," S.J. Ghan (Battelle Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland WA 99352), Clim. Change, 21(4), 345-346, Aug. 1992. Examines the factors responsible for the large discrepancies between global warming predictions from different global climate models, but is optimistic that the differences can be reconciled to permit better climate impact analyses.

Item #d92oct8

"EC Ozone Cap," A. McCulloch, Chem. in Britain, pp. 709-710, Aug. 1992. Comments on an earlier article concerning the ozone depletion potentials of HCFCs.

Item #d92oct9

Comment on a previous review of books concerning the dialogue between scientific and economic disciplines, M. Grubb, Nature, 358(6386), 448, Aug. 6, 1992.

Item #d92oct10

"Dealing with Climate Change," Issues Sci. Technol., pp. 14, 16, 17-18, Spring 1992. Correspondence from several authors on a previous article by Rubin et al. on the inadequacies of the U.S. global climate research program.

Item #d92oct11

"A Pilot Environmental Index for the UK in the 1980s," C. Hope (Judge Inst. Mgmt. Studies, Univ. Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1RX, UK), J. Parker, S. Peake, Energy Policy, 20(4), 335-343, Apr. 1992.

Evaluates an index constructed from nine topics ranging from local to global, particularly its sensitivity to different types of public opinion polls (which are used to assign relative weights to the various concerns). Implications for policy making are discussed.