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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 9, NUMBER 12, DECEMBER 1996

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d96dec64

Population growth and global warming: Scientists at the Environmental Defense Fund and The Population Council are working to quantify the relationship between population and emissions of greenhouse gases. Their modeling indicates that population may be a key variable for stabilizing atmospheric CO₂ in the long term, and that the CO₂ target chosen will affect the extent to which population policies help meet the goal. (See EDF Letter [p. 7, Nov. 1996]; Environ. Defense Fund, 275 Park Ave. S, New York NY 10010; tel: 212 505 2100.)

Item #d96dec65

German observatory threatened: The High Altitude Observatory on the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, is threatened by cuts in government funding for basic research before it has even opened its doors. It was planned to have been the only Global Atmospheric Watch monitoring station in the temperate zone, north of 45° . (See New Scientist, p. 6, Nov. 16, 1996.)

Item #d96dec66

U.K. project concludes: The £20-million TIGER project (Terrestrial Initiative in Global Environmental Research) has reached the end of its planned five-year life. One of its most notable results is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the Brazilian Amazon rainforest absorbs carbon in quantities comparable to the size of the "missing sink." (See Nature, p. 747, Oct. 31, 1996.)

Item #d96dec67

Australia's future: Several scientists speaking at a recent meeting in Canberra have painted a gloomy picture. Australia, the world's driest habitable continent, is exhausting its soils and may go the way of Easter Island—where civilization descended into anarchy and eventually collapsed. Australians cannot afford to be as cavalier with their environment as people living in wetter climates. (See New Scientist, p. 9, Oct. 12, 1996.)

Item #d96dec68

U.S. coastal storm trend: A long-term trend in the position of the jet stream is bringing fewer but stronger storms to the northeastern U.S. It is unclear whether the shift is a natural variation or is related to changing global temperature patterns related to global warming. (See The New York Times, p. C4, Oct. 29, 1996.)