Posted
10th June2001
Global
Warming Storms Not Just Hot Air
Its a political world, where commerce pays the pipers and calls
the tunes, at least as far as human social systems go. However,
Nature is the ultimate power, and Nature is indifferent to the
ways of humans. George Bush junior may be President of the globes
biggest economy, but he doesn't cut it with global weather systems.
Even the mostly compliant scientific community, notably those
on government pay in universities frequently wheeled out in
the USA and internationally to back up the interests of corporate
america, even they are hard-pressed to get unity over `business
as usual' in respect of climate and the biosciences manipulation
of genetics. In a study commissioned by the White House, the
US National Academy of Sciences said Wednesday that global warming
" is real and particularly strong within the past 20 years"
and said a leading cause is emissions of carbon dioxide from
burning fossil fuels. The report was requested to help prepare
Bush for his trip to Europe next week, but the academy was not
asked for policy recommendations and it made none. However,
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the report does
not definitely conclude that human activity is the cause of
rising temperatures. Bush wanted the study to help the administration
decide what steps to take to combat climate change. In Europe,
Bush has meetings on global warming scheduled with various officials.
Many Europeans protested vigorously after Bush, citing looming
energy shortages, in March reversed a campaign promise to limit
CO2 emissions from power plants. Global warning is used by veteran
anti-US organisations, but to use this fact to ignore the warnings
on global warming would be the worst kind of rationalisation,
and the most dangerous.
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