oracle
11-13-2002, 09:20 PM
Government Outlines Plan for Research on Warming (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/13/politics/13CLIM.html?ex=1037854800&en=5e79b6d20e12e58b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE)
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The Bush administration, saying there are still many uncertainties about threats posed by human-caused climate change, has outlined a broad, years-long research agenda on global warming.
Among many other goals, the draft plan calls for new work to be completed in the next four years to clarify how much of the warming since 1950 has been caused by human actions like emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide or soot; to explain differing temperature trends in the upper and lower atmosphere; and to improve computer models that simulate climate and monitoring systems for tracking the real thing.
The proposal was lauded yesterday by industry officials and some scientists who have long questioned the mainstream view that global warming is mainly caused by people and poses big risks.
But many climate experts said the proposal mainly rehashed issues most scientists consider settled. For example, they pointed out, big international and national panels of climate experts concluded in the past two years that at least half of the warming measured since 1950 was indeed caused by human actions, namely smokestack and tailpipe emissions.
The plan, which was posted Monday night on a Commerce Department Web site, climatescience.org, will go through months of public and scientific review before it is finished in the spring.
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Click here to read more (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/13/politics/13CLIM.html?ex=1037854800&en=5e79b6d20e12e58b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE)
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The Bush administration, saying there are still many uncertainties about threats posed by human-caused climate change, has outlined a broad, years-long research agenda on global warming.
Among many other goals, the draft plan calls for new work to be completed in the next four years to clarify how much of the warming since 1950 has been caused by human actions like emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide or soot; to explain differing temperature trends in the upper and lower atmosphere; and to improve computer models that simulate climate and monitoring systems for tracking the real thing.
The proposal was lauded yesterday by industry officials and some scientists who have long questioned the mainstream view that global warming is mainly caused by people and poses big risks.
But many climate experts said the proposal mainly rehashed issues most scientists consider settled. For example, they pointed out, big international and national panels of climate experts concluded in the past two years that at least half of the warming measured since 1950 was indeed caused by human actions, namely smokestack and tailpipe emissions.
The plan, which was posted Monday night on a Commerce Department Web site, climatescience.org, will go through months of public and scientific review before it is finished in the spring.
...
Click here to read more (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/13/politics/13CLIM.html?ex=1037854800&en=5e79b6d20e12e58b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE)