Global Warming In The News

By Nick Georgiou

The University Star Armando 

A report released on Friday by the activist group Environmental Texas indicates the state of Texas has been ranked No.1 in the nation for the largest overall increase in carbon dioxide emissions, jumping 178 percent between 1960 and 2001.The report titled “The Carbon Boom” indicates power plants and cars constitute for approximately 80 percent of increased coal and oil emissions.

“We saw a dramatic increase in pollution from the combustion of oil, mostly from the transportation sector and also from the combustion of coal from the power plants,” said Luke Metzger, Environmental Texas advocate.

In the past few years energy-based pollution problems have sparked a demand for alternative energy sources. “We know that by investing in smarter technologies, making our power plants and cars more efficient, investing in renewable energy like wind power, solar power, geothermal and biomass, we can dramatically reduce the amount of global warming pollution,” Metzger said.

Mary Waters, geography senior and president of the Texas State National Association of Environmental Professionals, said global warming is a serious issue for the entire world. “It especially affects Texas because of its increasing population and its warm climate,” Waters said.

According to the report, global warming threatens to raise sea levels in Texas and cause severe droughts and heat waves.

Pieter Tans, Chief Scientist of Climate Monitoring at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the threat of a more active hurricane season is very real due to rising sea temperatures. “Warmer oceans are very likely to spawn stronger hurricanes,” Tans said. “We’re already paying the price. It’s not cost-free to do nothing.”

Metzger attributes the lack of government action to groups who he says have spread misinformation about global warming. He said there is no debate about the science being presented.

“Just yesterday, the National Research Council, which is the main, preeminent scientific body, presented to Congress, once again, further proof that global warming is happening; that humans are the major contributors to the increase in global warming,” Metzger said. “It’s not a lack of science, it’s a lack of political will.”

Environmental Texas and other organizations have called for mandatory reductions in global warming. However, the federal government so far has rejected mandatory pollution limits due to the effect they think it will have on the economy.

Tans said it is unfortunate that oil companies, automakers and electric utility companies have lobbied against common sense solutions to fight global warming.

“For example, Exxon Mobile, in 1998 and 2004, spent $15 million in contributions to groups trying to confuse the public about the science, about the solutions to global warming,” Metzger said. “It’s really unfortunate that the public hears this misinformation from industry groups, even though the vast majority of scientists agree.”

One group that Metzger referred to is the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a non-profit public policy organization, who, according to their website, are “dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government.”

CEI recently produced two commercials which claim the threat of climate disaster due to energy use is unfounded. CEI’s Website states they want to “counter the flood of scare stories on global warming.” One of those advertisements, which has aired in Austin, talks about the benefits of carbon dioxide use and “how the effort to label carbon dioxide as a pollutant will have a negative, and unnecessary, impact on our lives.” CEI did not return phone calls from The University Star.

The scientific community, however, believes the problem is an overabundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by human activity. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, absorbs infrared radiation, which consequently heats up the earth’s surface. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more radiation is absorbed.

“We can actually calculate this with a very large amount of confidence,” said Tans, who has researched the global carbon cycle for several decades and has published more than 100 reports on the subject. He said the concentration of carbon dioxide has been fluctuating over the last one million years but has increased substantially in the last century. “We know why,” he said. “Because we are burning fossil fuels. There is zero doubt about that.”

Although some believe imposing restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions would adversely affect the economy, Tans said, limiting carbon dioxide emissions would not be “economically devastating,” citing Sweden as an example. Between 1972 and the early 1990s, he said, the country managed to curb the emissions of carbon dioxide in half and have had no noticeable affects on their gross domestic product. “So it is possible, but of course, there was a government policy to go with it,” Tans said. “We’re just seeing the beginning of this. I know there are people in denial about this, because it’s unpleasant to recognize. The longer people deny this, the more of a risk we run.”