Climate studies turn up the heat

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| Tuesday, November 09, 2004 |

SCRIPPS HOWARD

By Joan Lowy

WASHINGTON � Despite the release of two major studies that conclude global warming is dramatically effecting the United States faster than scientists had anticipated, President Bush is unlikely to significantly alter his stance on the issue, a key White House official said Monday.

Mandatory regulation or caps on greenhouse-gas emissions are unlikely for the foreseeable future, White House science adviser John Marburger said in an interview.

"Not in this administration," Marburger said.

A report by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change found "abundant evidence" that global warming has begun to affect plants and animals in every region of the United States, from the earlier nesting of birds in the desert Southwest to the earlier flowering of trees in forests around the Great Lakes.

Another report, commissioned by the United States and other nations with Arctic territory, found that northern Alaska and the rest of the Arctic are warming rapidly, with the loss of polar ice projected to accelerate global warming as well as contributing to sea-level rise and flooding.

Both reports conclude the warming is caused by heat-trapping emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

"The message is that global warming is here and now," said Hector Galbraith, an ecological research consultant in Newsane, Vt., and co-author of the Pew report. "It's surprising to me how soon we're seeing these impacts and how ubiquitous they are."

Despite saying the Bush administration would not change its policy, Marburger praised the two new reports.

"I think it's always good to have good scientific information and these reports appear to be responsible," he said. "The Arctic report points pretty clearly to effects and we've known about other things that are happening around the world."

Bush withdrew the United States from the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, saying the treaty would be too costly for the United States.

Instead, Bush has pushed a plan that allows U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions to continue to increase, but at a slightly slower rate of growth as the result of increased efficiency in the use of energy. The administration also has pumped billions of dollars into research on long-term alternative sources of energy, such as hydrogen fuel cells.

"I think the present policy is flexible enough to accommodate these existing reports and any recent scientific reports that I am aware of," Marburger said. "There is general acceptance of the need to decrease the amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide) produced in the process of making energy. Exactly how you go about doing that and how much is necessary is not yet understood."

In response to the new reports, U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., renewed their calls to pass bipartisan legislation capping greenhouse-gas emissions.