Legitimate Scientists Know This Is For Real Affordable Response Congress Must Order Conservation, Research

Some nonscientists say it’s easier to believe that 2,500 scientists dreamed up some sky-is-falling hoax than to believe global warming is real.

Get over it. Global warming is a fact. Listen to the cooler heads in science, which include the 2,500 scientists who work with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their opinion hasn’t been paid for like the researchers-for-hire quoted by energy industries.

“We believe that warming trends … are now sufficiently clear that the issue should no longer be whether global warming is occurring, but what is the fate of warming, what is its practical significance, and what should be done about it,” climatologist James Hansen and four colleagues wrote in a study published Thursday. It shows the atmosphere is warming despite data that, because of a problem with a satellite orbit, mistakenly indicated a cooling effect. Climatologist Frank J. Wentz said the new report “has convinced some scientists, the ones sitting on the fence sort of scratching their heads about why there was this discrepancy” between the satellite data and other climate data. “They are relieved and satisfied to see the corrections.”

So what’s being done? Well, the petroleum industry and other energy industry lobbyists are busy with a $6 million lobbying blitz to stop any measures in the Kyoto treaty from becoming law. The Kyoto agreement will not come before Congress any time soon. President Clinton has asked Congress for $6.3 billion in research and tax incentives over the next five years to encourage the private sector to cooperate in improving energy efficiency, generating clean power and reducing greenhouse gases. But he isn’t having much luck.

We are moving backward, even though we know the United States is the biggest single source of global warming, causing 25 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions today. Trying to reduce those numbers will raise the price we pay for energy. But it will not bring economic ruin.

“The economic costs of this treaty can be reduced by 80 percent” if the Clinton plan is approved at home and globally, said Bruce Humphrey of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a Boston consulting firm.

It’s time to take steps to protect our planet for future generations. It’s time to put public interest before profits. It’s the pragmatic thing to do. It’s the human thing to do.