Greenhouse Gases

IF OUR PATCH of warm winters hasn't provoked some wondering about global warming, then that huge chunk of ice that recently and dramatically broke off Antarctica was certainly cause to sit up and take notice. This was a staggering geophysical event that unfolded with startling rapidity, over just 35 days. About 650 feet thick and larger than Rhode Island, the disintegrated ice shelf probably was part of the Antarctic Peninsula for 12,000 years. At minimum, its collapse highlights the daunting scientific, political and economic crosscurrents in the long-running war over the climatic effects of greenhouse gases.

WASHINGTON - For the first time since President Bush rejected the international Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases, momentum is building in the Senate to begin addressing global warming. But skirmishing over competing proposals and opposition from the House of Representatives and the administration may prevent any plan from passing Congress this year. The fate of the burgeoning effort to tackle global warming appears to hinge on whether Sen. Pete V. Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, decides to co-sponsor a modest limit on greenhouse gas emissions proposed by his state's junior senator, Democrat Jeff Bingaman.

The best news to be found on the climate change front this month was a report that the polar bear, a threatened species that has come to symbolize the dangers of global warming, may yet be saved — if greenhouse emissions are reduced over the next two decades. Unfortunately, that's a big "if. " International climate talks that ended early this month in Cancun produced no legally binding agreement. They weren't expected to — nor is the stalemate expected to break in the near future.

The first detailed analysis of a climatic and biological record from the seabed near the North Pole indicates that 55 million years ago the Arctic Ocean was far warmer than scientists imagined - a Floridian year-round average of 74 degrees Fahrenheit. The findings, published today in the journal Nature, fill in a blank spot in scientists' understanding of climate history. And they suggest that scientists have greatly underestimated the power of greenhouse gases to warm the Arctic. Previous computer simulations, without the benefit of seabed sampling, did not suggest an ancient Arctic that was nearly so warm, the authors said.

WASHINGTON -- The United States -- and two other major oil-producing nations -- appear to have blocked efforts for an international accord for cutting greenhouse-effect emissions, environmentalists reported yesterday.As a result, they said, when the Second World Climate Conference in Geneva ends tomorrow, the more than 120 participating nations will be able to issue a joint statement that proposes only to stabilize emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases but sets no targets or dates for doing so.The United States, supported by the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia, forced European negotiators to water down the final statement of intent to exclude reference to specific targets, according to environmental groups monitoring the conference.

President Clinton's lengthy plan to stem global warming by reducing the consumption of fossil fuels relies heavily on the V word -- voluntary.It's another environmental balancing act by the administration, heavy on the apocalyptic rhetoric but short on strong policy measures. Vice President Al Gore's urgent but fuzzy predictions of environmental dystopia overlay what is really an appeal to the volunteer conservation ethic of individuals and corporations.Planting more trees (at least he didn't blame them for air pollution)

TOKYO -- Three weeks before representatives of most of the world's nations gather in Kyoto, Japan, to discuss how to stop global warming, the key participants held a preliminary meeting in Tokyo and made it clear that concluding a worldwide agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be difficult.The weekend session was not necessarily expected to achieve any breakthroughs, but when no progress was achieved, it confirmed the perception that if the Dec. 1-10 Kyoto conference succeeds in creating an international plan to clean up the Earth's atmosphere, it will be a long-shot accomplishment.

WASHINGTON - Carbon dioxide, the chief cause of global warming, cannot be regulated as a pollutant, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled yesterday. The decision, which reverses a 1998 Clinton administration position, means the Bush administration won't be able to use the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from cars. If the Bush administration had decided that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and harmful, it could have required expensive new pollution controls on new cars and perhaps on power plants, which together are the main sources of so-called greenhouse gases.

WASHINGTON -- Acknowledging that its program of largely voluntary anti-pollution measures is falling short of its goal, the Clinton administration is considering tougher steps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming.When the administration established the current program in 1993, it said the provisions would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2000. That would have kept the pledge made by the United States and other industrial nations when they signed the Rio de Janeiro treaty on global warming in 1992.

Formstone may be out, but what about putting more wood into 21st century versions of Baltimore's classic urban dwelling, the row home? Hoping to encourage more use of climate-friendly wood in housing, the U.S. Forest Service is teaming up with City Hall to offer $10,000 in prizes to local architects and builders who come up with the most innovative row home designs that incorporate recycled and sustainably harvested wood and wood fiber. The "Carbon Challenge," as the design contest is called, is to be announced Tuesday morning at a press conference in the city's Oliver neighborhood.