Greenhouse Gases

Scientists believe they have figured out what caused the most rapid global warming in known geologic history, a cataclysmic temperature spike 55 million years ago driven by concentrations of greenhouse gases hundreds of times higher than today's. The culprit, the researchers reported yesterday in the journal Science, was a series of volcanic eruptions that set off a chain reaction releasing huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. The eruptions occurred on the rift between two continental plates as Greenland and Europe separated.

For those who want to see the planet but fret about the harmful environmental effects of driving and flying, a growing list of companies are offering a chance to "offset" the journey. They're called carbon offset programs, and they aim to reduce the threat of global warming that scientists say are caused by greenhouse gases emitted when burning fossil fuels. Using the offset programs, most available online, travelers can calculate how much carbon dioxide their trip produces and pay to generate an equal share of renewable energy such as wind or solar power.

BOSTON -- Since this is the list-making time of year, allow me to add a tiny trophy to Al Gore's very full shelf: the prize for the most elegant speech of 2007. I wasn't sure how the politician-turned-environmentalist fit the profile for a Nobel Peace Prize, but his acceptance speech connected the dots. "Without realizing it," Mr. Gore said, "we have begun to wage war on the Earth itself. Now, we and the Earth's climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: mutually assured destruction."

BOSTON -- Over the past couple of years, I've downgraded my bedtime reading. Those final moments of the day once reserved for great literature are often filled with extremely commercial nonfiction.Instead of taking that long-delayed voyage of "Moby Dick," I take a trip to Lands' End. Instead of learning about the wonders of Dante's "Inferno," I travel lightly to the Pottery Barn.Instead of a sojourn with Virginia Woolf or Henry David Thoreau, I spend quiet moments with J. Jill or J. Crew.

WASHINGTON -- Industry opponents of a treaty to fight global warming have drafted an ambitious proposal to spend millions of dollars to persuade the public that a 1992 environmental accord is based on shaky science.Among their ideas is a campaign to recruit scientists who share the industry's views of climate science and to train them in public relations so they can persuade journalists, politicians and the public that the risk of global warming is too uncertain to justify controls on greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that trap the sun's heat near Earth.

After an all-night session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, negotiators from more than 150 countries set a deadline early yesterday of two years for adopting operational rules for cutting emissions of industrial waste gases that are believed to cause global warming.With that, proponents of the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty under which the reductions are to be made, declared victory in the two-week round of talks.The treaty's backers said the conference revealed a shift in the worldwide debate on how to deal with the possibility of disruptive climate change brought about by emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, produced by the burning of oil, coal, wood and natural gas.Buenos Aires made clear, they said, that industry and developing countries were becoming more engaged in the effort to control emissions and in trying to make the Kyoto Protocol work.

AS GLOBAL warming treaty talks ended yesterday in Argentina, the 160 nations were divided on the important nTC concept of emissions trading.Essentially, it allows one country to pay another country for its unused "pollution rights" assigned by the international agreement. The pollution is emissions of "greenhouse gases," mostly from burning carbon fuels, into the atmosphere where they trap heat and warm the planet.The United States wants unlimited ability to buy these emission rights to help meet its pledge to reduce warming gases by 7 percent from the 1990 base level.

THE INTERNATIONAL agreement on global warming represents an environmental milestone, with the first legal obligations of the industrialized world to reduce heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions.While troublesome details remain to be resolved, and ultimate ratification of the treaty by the more than 150 participating nations is uncertain, the accord gets the world moving in the right direction to address potentially serious climatic change.The United States finally committed itself to a target of 7 percent reduction of greenhouse gases from 1990 levels; other industrialized countries have similar targets under the agreement that was two years in the making.

KYOTO, Japan -- A conference that is supposed to cap more than two years of negotiations on what to do about global warming opened yesterday amid widespread concern that too many hard issues remained to allow the completion of an effective agreement.Melinda Kimble, a senior State Department official who is leading the U.S. delegation in Kyoto, hinted at some flexibility in the American position on setting targets for reducing gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.Scientists advising the negotiators say that if emissions are not reduced, the average global surface temperature will rise by 2 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.

NAHUEL HUAPI NATIONAL PARK, Argentina -- Framed by the Patagonian wilderness, President Carlos Saul Menem of Argentina appeared with President Clinton yesterday to endorse Clinton's call for developing nations to join the effort to restrict gases that contribute to global warming.Clinton is seeking to negotiate limits on emissions for all countries, including developing ones. Many of those countries say that industrialized countries that have benefited most from polluting should bear the costs of addressing it.Menem said, "We agree with the United States when you say that a global problem such as climate change requires a global answer, coming from all countries."

Efforts to pass climate change legislation through Congress in time for the international summit in Copenhagen received an unexpected boost from Republican sources this week. The first, and perhaps most important, was South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham's decision to join Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry in a bipartisan climate bill that includes - gasp! - the cap-and-trade provision so often derided by conservatives. But for those frustrated by the pseudo-science and quackery of climate change opponents who continue to bury their heads in the warming sand, the second was just as satisfying: Turns out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush was just as alarmed by climate change as the rest of the mainstream scientific community.

If international confabs held last week in New York and Pittsburgh produced anything worth noting in the area of climate change, it is this: Don't expect the world to reach a new agreement over controlling greenhouse gases in time for the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen in December. Consensus is not around the corner, and the U.S. is not the only nation struggling with this important but difficult issue. Still, while the prospect of a blown deadline isn't ordinarily an especially good reason to cheer, there are too many positive signs of movement here and abroad to embrace a gloom and doom outlook.

As expected, Friday's debate on the floor of the House of Representatives produced the usual misinformation and hysteria that have typified the nation's climate change deniers. But in the end, some measure of reason prevailed, and House passage of the landmark American Clean Energy Act is rightly seen as an important step toward reducing America's production of greenhouse gases. This is not a bill without flaws. Its targets are not aggressive enough given the threat posed by climate change.

Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that Maryland is poised to help shape national environmental policy by passing legislation that would curb pollutants linked to global warming. The bill, which had its first hearing in the state Senate yesterday, is likely to pass this year after proponents agreed in recent weeks to essentially exempt manufacturers from mandates against greenhouse gas emissions. Opposition from unions and manufacturers killed similar O'Malley-backed legislation last year.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will clear the way today for Maryland, California and several other states to implement auto emissions rules designed to slash global warming pollution, sources familiar with the decision said yesterday. The move is significant on two fronts: It could empower states to set tougher standards in targeting emissions, which are blamed for contributing to global climate change; and it would be another swift reversal by Obama of Bush administration policy, this time on energy.

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush could be forcing President-elect Barack Obama to act almost immediately to curb global warming, after years of the Bush administration's fighting attempts to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions. In its final weeks, the Bush administration has moved to close what it calls "back doors" to regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It barred the Environmental Protection Agency from considering the effects of global warming on protected species.

One disappointment in a presidential race seemingly lowering the bar of expectations by the day is the lack of conversation about climate change. Even with the financial crisis and the war in Iraq, there are few more pressing issues, not only because of how disastrous global warming will be for the nation's - and world's - economy, health, security and environment but also because we're running out of time to do much about it. Fortunately, whichever candidate...

Maryland and five other states launched a pioneering effort to combat climate change yesterday by auctioning off rights for power plants to release Earth-warming carbon dioxide into the air. How much Maryland and the other states got for their pollution credits won't be announced until Monday, but the proceeds will be used for energy efficiency programs and other efforts designed to offset any resulting increase in rates - and, proponents argue, eventually...

Bob Carter of Harrisonville asks: "How much has Earth's atmosphere declined, and in which amounts, to cause climate change? Keep it simple!" Cliff Notes version: Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased 34 percent since 1800, from 280 parts per million to 377 ppm. Methane concentrations are up 145 percent. Our emissions of these "greenhouse gases" have jumped 70 percent since 1970. Scientists agree these higher concentrations are "very likely" responsible for most observed climate warming.

A bill that would have committed Maryland to fight global warming died in a House committee last night after lobbying from industry and from factory workers fearful for their jobs. The Economic Matters Committee voted against the measure, which had been endorsed by Gov. Martin O'Malley and had passed the Senate, albeit in a weakened form. The bill would have mandated a 25 percent reduction by 2020 in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which scientific authorities say are warming the climate.