COOLING TREND

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) continues to reel under revelations that its editor changed the wording of its most recent report on global warming after it had been agreed upon by the scientists involved. In CEI Update 9, No. 7, p 5 (1996), available from CEI, 1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 1250, Washington, DC 20036, James Sheehan discusses the changes. For example, at one point in the IPCC text in the peer reviewed discussion of when scientists will be able [to] attribute climate change to human causes, the editor removed the phrase "we do not know'' because (in his opinion) it overstated doubts that human activity can be blamed. This was then falsely advertised as the peer reviewed text.

Meanwhile, the Clinton-Gore Administration has told the United Nations that it seeks an international agreement requiring the world's industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent global warming. Specific targets are to be announced in December 1997. (See EPA Watch 5, No. 13, p 1, (1996), available from 1725 DeSales Street, N.W., Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036.) So far, the only significant environmental change from the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide has been a marked increase in world plant and (presumably) animal growth. "Increased Activity of Northern Vegetation Inferred from Atmospheric CO2 Measurements'' by C. D. Keeling, J. F. S. Chin, and T. P Whorf, Science 382, p 146 (1996), reports seasonal increases in the CO2 cycle of 20% and greater. Surely 20% more "natural'' living things cannot be termed an enviro disaster.