Global Climate Change Archive - Government and Industry

A collection of older (2004) news items related to steps taken by government and industry to control emissions and consequences of global climate change. All links take you outside of the PRISM site. Use your back button to return.

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• December 17, 2004 - Crichton's Climate Fear Contention - BBC
  Michael Crichton has written a new book, State of Fear in which he argues that global warming is nonsense. He notes that his work is fiction, but is based on his research into the topic where he found the data weren't as strong as he expected them to be.
  
  
• December 15, 2004 - U.S. Faces Legal Fights On Climate - International Herald Tribune
  Representatives of poorer nations and Inuit communities plan to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against the United States, claiming that the U.S. contribution to global warming has caused a situation that threatens the Inuit and other nations' existence.
  
  
• December 10, 2004 - Global Warming: Feeling The Heat - Seattle Times
  President Bush's scientific and policy advisors do not dispute that there has been global warming, they simply do not advise mandating carbon dioxide restriction because they feel it will be ineffective and cost jobs. Instead they want to promote technologies that curb pollution such as hydrogen cars.
  
  
• December 5, 2004 - Climate Talks Bring Bush's Policy to Fore - Yahoo!
  Scientists have come up with several new clues related to the extent of global climate change.
  
  
• November 29, 2004 - Global Warming Meeting Next Week - C-news
  International delegates will meet in Buenos Aires next week to talk about how to address global warming under the Kyoto Protocol. Those nations opposed to the protocol will propose other methods of addressing the problem.
  
  
• November 26, 2004 - Prompt Action Is Essential If Climate Change Is To Be Tackled - Taipei Times
  Further climate change is inevitable due to the current carbon dioxide emissions. It is imperative that we develop plans to mitigate further exacerbation of warming and to deal with the effects of the current situation.
  
  
• November 25, 2004 - Group Passes On Addressing Global Warming - The State
  The members of the Arctic Council, including the United States, failed to make any recommendations to combat global warming in spite of new evidence showing increased warming in the Arctic. (Similar story from ENN.)
  
  
• Nov. 19, 2004 - U.S. To Invest For Methane - CNN
  The United States signed an agreement with 13 other nations that calls for investing up to $53 million in companies that profitably control emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas.
  
  
• Nov. 13, 2004 - US Urged To Help Slow Arctic Thaw - BBC
  At a conference in Iceland, indigenous people of the Arctic have asked the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions to slow the thaw of polar ice. They warned that their way of life was being endangered and castigated Bush for his refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
  
  
• Nov. 4, 2004 - World Will Act On Climate Gases - BBC
  A leading British expert on the environment says that urgent action is needed to combat climate gases, even though many in the U.S. administration are "in a state of denial.' He believes that world leaders must act quickly or see our civilization crash.
  
  
• Nov. 3, 2004 - Do We Have the Political Will To Save The Planet? - Scotsman
  Editorial examines the implications of the ACIA finding that Arctic ice is now half as thick as it was 30 years ago and what there is covers a smaller area. The writer points out the Kyoto Protocol will not even come close to solving the problem, though it is a step in the right direction.
  
  
• Oct. 27, 2004 - NASA Expert Says Bush Covering Up Truth About Global Warming - Yahoo
  A leading NASA scientist has accused the Bush Administration of stifling the release of information about global warming. James Hansen said the administration wants to hear only scientific results that "fit pre-determined, inflexible positions."
  
  
• Oct. 26, 2004 - Global Warming Seen As A Security Threat - ENN
  Analysts are warning that global climate change has the potential for increasing security risks around the world as the floods, severe weather events and coastal changes may destabilize governments, provoke riots and ignite conflicts among people.
  
  
• Oct. 21, 2004 - The War Over U.S. Science - International Herald Tribune
  For almost four years scientists from around the world have been critical of President George Bush's science policy, saying it has suppressed research results to suit policies, skewed advisory panels and quashed discussion. Administration officials see this complaint as symptomatic of unrealistic expectations on the part of scientists.
  
  
• Oct. 21, 2004 - Climate Change Threatens World Aid - Belfast Telegraph
  Britain's development and aid agencies have formally declared that climate change is the most serious problem confronting the poor of the world. The agencies said they could no longer ignore their own evidence that the world's poorest people and countries ere already being negatively affected by global warming, and that the impact could only be expected to increase. (similar story from IC Newcastle)
  
  
• Sept. 27, 2004 - San Francisco Plan Aims To Slash Greenhouse Gases - Yahoo
  The San Francisco mayor has unveiled a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city. The aim of the plan is to reduce emissions 20% below 1990 levels.
  
  
• Sept. 16, 2004 - U.S. Blocking Arctic Report - Newsday
  A Canadian government official has complained that U.S. State Dept. officials are blocking the release of one of two reports that were to be presented to government ministers from eight Arctic nations at a meeting on Nov. 9 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Reportedly the policy document urges reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions and the other nations participating in the assessment want the documents released, but the U.S. is refusing to do so at this time.
  
  
• Sept. 16, 2004 - Blair Makes Appeal To Tackle Global Warming - International News (Pakistan)
  Prime minister, Tony Blair, has issued a call to governments of industrialized nations to develop a strategy to address global climate change, calling it "urgent" that such action be taken. (Related story from MSMBC).
  
  
• Sept. 15, 2004 - Balance or Bias? - Environmental Science
  An article in Global Environmental Change analyzed news reports about global climate change and human contributions toward it. They reported that most articles tried to present arguments for and against global warming. Some scientists feel this leads to gross under-representation of generally agreed-upon scientific findings.
  
  
• Sept. 15, 2004 - Will U.S. Change Tune on Kyoto? - Daily Yomiuri
  A recent U.S. government report indicated that global warming is partially due to human activities. But recent statements by prominent Republicans and Democrats indicate that the U.S. government has not warmed up to the Kyoto Protocol as the way to derail global warming.
  
  
• Sept. 10, 2004 - Climate Panel's Findings Seared By Peer Review - Scoop
  Leading economists have been very critical of economic assumptions made by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Some scientists have also charged that the group has greatly overestimated future greenhouse emissions and temperature change, possibly for political reasons.
  
  
• Sept. 10, 2004 - Need For Carbon Sink Technology - BBC
  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has advised governments to take measures to ensure lower carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and to find new methods for extracting CO2 from the atmosphere.
  
  
• Sept. 3, 2004 - Global Warming Thaws Arctic, Divides Governments - Yahoo!
  An international panel has established that the Arctic climate is warming rapidly now and even more rapid changes are expected and that human activities are partly responsible for this warming. But there is no agreement among countries which border the Arctic region on how it should be addressed.
  
  
• August 31, 2004 - Mexico Adopts Standards To Measure Global Warming Gases - ENN
  Mexico is the first country to adopt internationally-accepted standards to measure and report business greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for establishing a voluntary national program..
  
  
• August 26, 2004 - U.S. Study Links Human Activity to Global Warming - Yahoo! News
  The Bush administration has sent a report to Congress that says that a government-supported study has shown that warmer global temperatures since 1950 are in part due to human activities. This is in contrast to earlier statements that there was no clear scientific proof about the causes of global warming. (Similar article from International Herald Tribune.)
  
  
• August 25, 2004 - U.S. Senators visit Arctic, Investigate Climate Change - ENN
  Several senators have visited Svalbard to learn more about climate change in the Arctic and to be briefed on the soon-to-be-released Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. (Map and images of Svalbard, Norway.)
  
  
• August 13, 2004 - Technology Already Exists to Stabilize Global Warming - Space Daily
  Scientists at Princeton University have identified several already available technologies which could stabilize greenhouse gas emissions for at least five years. These include, among others, increased reliance on renewable energy sources, some changes in forest management, and storage of carbon dioxide gasses from power plants.
  
  
• August 12, 2004 - New Findings Show Earth Is Not Getting Warmer - ENN
  The Director of the National Center for Policy Analysis announced the results of two studies that support the idea that the earth is not warming. Both studies support the contention that most of the warming seen is at the surface, not in the atmosphere.
  
  
• August 11, 2004 - Floods: 'Rich Nations Must Share the Blame'- Mail & Guardian
  Should rich nations whose emissions contribute to global warming be obligated to compensate poorer nations who are affected by the floods and severe weather events caused by such climate change?
  
  
• August 8, 2004 - Samoa Calls For Action On Global Warming - Asia Pacific
  The Samoan government has requested that the international community start determining how to meet the threat of rising sea level immediately.
  
  
• August 6, 2004 - Global Warming - Yahoo News
  The attorney general of New York and those of seven other states are suing some of the nation's largest utility companies demanding that they reduce emissions that increase global warming.
  
  
• August 6, 2004 - NCPA Says NRDC Study Flawed... - Yahoo News
  The National Center for Policy Analysis says that the study that found that smog will increase if global warming continues to increase is fundamentally flawed. The NCPA asserts that their data show that smog has been reduced over the past 25 years and that trend will continue.
  
  
• July 31, 2004 - Is Global Warming A Bigger Threat Than Terrorism? - BBC
  View the interactive program in which two scientists answer questions about global warming by taking the Watch Now link. You can also read the comments of the public in response to the assertion of Sir David King that climate change is a greater threat than terrorism.
  
  
• July 18, 2004 - Computer Climate Models Not Useful In Setting Climate Policy - Canadian NewsWire
  The Frasier Institute in Canada issued a report saying that computerized climate models are not useful for setting policy, especially in determining whether to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Several recommendations were made that would make the data more useful. Download the study
  
  
• July 16, 2004 - N.Z US Consolidate Partnership On Climate Change - Scoop
  Six new projects related to climate change were agreed to under the New Zealand - United States bilateral climate change partnership. These include studies on methane emissions, digitization of historic climate records, carbon dioxide sequestration, nitrous oxide emissions, and new materials for the hydrogen economy.
  
  
• July 16, 2004 - Pakistan May Sign Kyoto Protocol - Dawn
  Pakistan is seriously considering signing Kyoto protocol to combat climate change. Currently it is conducting advanced studies on the implications and repercussions of the protocol, and looking at alternative energy sources.
  
  
• July 15, 2004 - EU Lowers Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Yahoo! News
  The first decline since 2002 in greenhouse gases has been shown this year in the EU. This has been attributed to a warmer winter and a stagnant economy.
  
  
• July 14, 2004 - Climatologist Exposes Cracks In Global Warming Foundation - ENN
  A new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis indicates there are serious problems with the historical climate trends reconstruction published by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The groups cites the work of five independent research groups in support of this claim. Copy of the entire report.
  
  
• July 5, 2004 - Australia Warned Of Water Crisis - BBC
  The Australian Climate Group has warned that Australia must drastically curb its greenhouse gas emissions or face a critical water shortage and more severe storms in the years to come.
  
  
• June 3, 2004 - World "Appeasing" Climate Threat - BBC
  James Lovelock, the proponent of the Gaia theory, says that only a catastrophe will prompt the world to end the destruction of natural habitats, which he sees as the key to planetary climate stability. He maintains that humans are "at war with the Earth itself."
  
  
• June 1, 2004 - Climate Disaster "Upon Us" - Guardian Unlimited
  James Lovelock, a leading environmental scientist, reports that humans have probably damaged the environment irretrievably for their descendents. Several lines of research have led him to conclude that the world does not understand the seriousness of global warming.
  
  
• May 25, 2004 - Real Life Art Imitating Science - BBC News
  A climate change scientist looks at the film The Day After Tomorrow and reports that the film's scenario is possible, but not probable. However, he does say that the film accurately portrays the difficulty scientists have convincing politicians that climate change poses a threat. (Similar story from National Center for Atmospheric Science and Newswise.)
  
  
• May 23, 2004 - Rising Tide Worries Pacific Islanders - Chicago Sun-Times
  Pacific Islanders are seeing their islands slowly being covered with water as sea levels rise. The UN Secretary General says "we may be seeing some of the devastation that lies ahead" if "greenhouse gas" emissions are not controlled globally.
  
  
• April 15, 2004 - Scientists Stirred to Ridicule Ice Age Claims - New Scientist
  Climate scientists say the movie "The Day After Tomorrow," in which global warming leads to an ice age, is a very unlikely scenario for the near future. Some scientists think it could happen eventually, but are not worried about it occurring in the next 100 years.
  
  
• March 27, 2004 - Climate Crisis Heats Up - The Australian
  Australia has launched an action plan to reduce greenhouse gases with the centerpiece being research into the effectiveness of carbon-sequestration, but the plan is expected to meet resistance from organizations who believe that alternative energy sources should be a major part of the plan.
  
  
• Mar. 23, 2004 - Improved Crop Production and Fewer Greenhouse Gases - Newswise
  No-till drilling farming methods have been shown to be superior to conventional tilling methods and to organic farming, both in crop yields and in retaining carbon in the soil.
  
  
• Feb. 17, 2004 - Carbon Dioxide Emissions At Record High - Helsingin Sanomat
  Statistics Finland reports that carbon dioxide emissions were at an all-time high in Finland last year - a 13% increase, probably due to an increased use of coal.