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In the late 1980s, scientists officially put global warming on the international agenda when several key studies showed that global temperatures appeared to be rising. In 1995, the United Nations and World Meteorology Organization (WMO) published an international study of the world's climate. A team of 2,500 scientists, including several Nobel laureates, concluded that humans were making a discernible imprint on the globe's atmosphere. Studies from organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Office of Science and Technology conducted studies that supported the findings.
Conflicting Views
Not everyone is persuaded, however. A vocal minority of scientists disputes the evidence for global warming. Richard Lindzen, a research meterologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leading critic of global warming theory, says, "I can find no substantive basis for the warming scenarios being popularly described. Moreover, according to many studies I have read by economists, agronomists, and hydrologists, there would be little difficulty adapting to such warming if it were to occur." Another critic, the climatologist Pat Michaels of the University of Virginia, claims warmer temperatures have been confined to winter in Siberia and North America. He also says that in the United States, drought has decreased while flooding has increased. "Moreover, carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere at a rate below that of most climate-change scenarios because it is being increasingly captured by growing vegetation."
Climate Change and the Economy
Scientists are not the only ones who disagree about global warming. Some economists and industry leaders fear that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would cost the American economy billions of dollars annually and plunge the country into a depression. Representatives for the United States also claim that while they will have to implement costly changes, developing countries will be exempt from committing to a reduction in gas emissions. The clashing perspectives of scientists and politicians make an international agreement on climate control extremely challenging.
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