v CoMATE

Co-9

0

0

GLOBALC-34

CLIMATE WATPT-1
ti---1111/EF

AN INFORMATION UPDATE FROM THE GLOBAL CLIMATE COALITION
April 9, 1998

Volume 5, Issue 16

ANTI-KYOTO PRESSURE BUILDS
MORE THAN 15,000 SCIENTISTS URGE U.S. TO REJECT KYOTO
"There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon
dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the
foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere
and disruption of the Earth's climate."
This unequivocal statement — signed by more than 15,000 American scientists
including at least one former president of the National Academy of Sciences — is
contained in a petition that will shortly be presented to the U.S. Congress and the
Clinton Administration. The petition, promoted by a number of independent
scientists who say they are increasingly disturbed by the misuse of science and
deliberate deception of the American public by global warming advocates, calls on
the U.S. Government to reject the Kyoto agreement.
"We urge the United States Government to reject the global warming
agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any
similar proposals," the petition states. It adds: "The proposed limits on
greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of
science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind."
The petition is accompanied by a 30-page paper detailing misrepresentations by the
UN's International Panel on Climate Change and other official bodies. The petition
and supporting materials are available at <http://zwr.oism.org/pprojecti>

DINGELL, SENSENBRENNER EXPRESS OUTRAGE OVER ESTRADA
COMMENTS: 'UNPRECEDENTED DISPLAY OF ARROGANCE
The Argentine diplomat who chaired the Kyoto climate meeting proved distinctly
undiplomatic during a brief visit to Washington, March 16. In the space of a few
hours Raul Estrada-Oyuela managed to insult the U.S. Congress as being "out of
touch with the rest of the world," prompted a bipartisan demand that the Kyoto treaty
be scrapped, and further stiffened already strong resistance to the treaty in both the
House and Senate.

JOB LOSSES
UNDER KYOTO
AGREEMENT
Alabama
62,500
Alaska
2,600
Arizona
125,000
Arkansas
17,300
California
411,000
Colorado
40,000
Connecticut
30,600
Delaware
4,000
Florida
76,000
Georgia
45,300
Hawaii
14,600
Idaho
14,600
Illinois
240,000
Indiana
104,000
Iowa
25,300
Kansas
30,600
Kentucky
50,600
Louisiana
48,000
Maine
9,300
Maryland
46,600
Massachusetts
34,600
Michigan
125,300
Minnesota
40,000
Mississinni

 CLIMAI E WATCH
111,111EF
Estrada told the Washington press corps that "Congress is acting as though the
rest of the world doesn't exist — not only on this matter, but on others . . .
they are acting in isolation. . . perhaps they need to get more in touch with the
rest of the world."
Members of both houses were furious. In a joint "Dear Colleague" letter, House
Science Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Rep. John Dingell
(D-MI) accused Estrada of "an unprecedented display of arrogance" that only
increased the probability that the Kyoto treaty would never be ratified by the United
States.
The text of the Sensenbrenner-Dingell letter follows:
"We want to bring your attention to the attached article, U.N. envoy slams
U.S. lawmakers on warming treaty, which appeared in The Washington Times
on Tuesday, March 17th. Upset that Members of Congress dared to criticize
the Kyoto treaty, the self-proclaimed "architect" of the U.N. climate treaty,
Raul Estrada-Oyuela, the Argentine Ambassador to China, became the Kyoto
demolition man.
"On his way to the U.N. headquarters in New York to sign the treaty on behalf
of Argentina, Mr. Estrada put on an unprecedented display of arrogance and
self importance that increased the probability the treaty will never be ratified
by the U.S. Senate. Mr. Estrada proclaimed "Congress is acting as though the
rest of the world doesn't exist, not only on this matter but on others. Perhaps
they need to get in touch with the rest of the world," he continued.
"Mr. Estrada's remarks make it clear that the Administration should reject
signing this Kyoto treaty and start anew. The treaty is seriously flawed — so
flawed, in fact, that it cannot be salvaged. It is based on immature science,
costs too much, leaves too many procedural questions unanswered, is grossly
unfair because developing countries are not required to participate, and will do
nothing to solve the speculative problem it is intended to solve.
"We should do what is right for generation of Americans, not just react to
international pressure. The history of the U.N. proceedings that led to the
Kyoto treaty does not inspire confidence that the U.S. will be treated fairly
once power over our future is transferred. We are here to represent the
interests of our constituents and the United States — not the interests of the
U.N. bureaucrats or other nations."
A Senate spokesman, recalling Estrada's comments in Kyoto that the U.S. Senate is
"a nuisance," said that it seemed obvious that the Argentinian "doesn't like
democratic legislative bodies."

•

28,000
Missouri
57,300
Montana
14,600
Nebraska
28,000
Nevada
30,600
New Hampshire
6,600
New Jersey
159,600
New Mexico
12,000
New York
145,300
North Carolina
133,000
North Dakota
2,600
Ohio
77,300
Oklahoma
26,600
Oregon
14,600
Pennsylvania
44,000
Rhode Island
2,600
South Carolina
32,000
South Dakota
6,600
Tennessee
48,000
Texas
165,300
Utah
12,000
Vermont
1,300
Virginia
84,000
Washington
60,000
West Virginia
9,300
Wisconsin
87,000
Wyoming
9,300
(Source: WEFA)

GLOBAL CLIMATE COALITION • 1275 K St. NW • Suite 890 • Washington, DC 20005 • Press Office (202) 628-3622

 CLINIA1 E WATCH
ISRIET
'With each passing day, it becomes more apparent that the stringent targets and timetables agreed to
in Kyoto are unrealistic and impractical. We urge the President to reject the treaty, start over, and work
closely with Congress."
— Gail McDonald, president, Global Climate Coalition

GCC ASSAILS ADMINISTRATION'S SACK DOOR"POLICY
Bowing to Congressional opposition, the White House dropped an EPA proposal to regulate carbon dioxide
emissions from its utility deregulation plan unveiled March 25, but boosted EPA's authority to cap nitrogen
oxide emissions and would force utilities to generate 5.5 percent of their output from renewable fuels by 2010.
Administration officials indicated that they would seek other ways to introduce the curbs on carbon dioxide
emissions. Global Climate Coalition president Gail McDonald assailed the Administration's attempt to use
unrelated laws and policies to implement the Kyoto treaty "by the back door" before the Senate had a chance
to consider it.
The utility deregulation proposal, she said, shows the Administration "is trying to end-run Congress and
implement the treaty on its own." It was clear that the Administration still had every intention of including a
CO2 cap and trade provision by some means. "These matters have nothing to do with deregulation," she said.
"They have no place in the deregulation debate."

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ARE FIRST TO SIGN KYOTO TREATY
The Kyoto Protocol was officially opened for signing March 16 and the first to sign were developing countries
with nothing to lose but much to gain financially from the treaty. By month's end a total of 10 countries had
signed, of which only one — Switzerland — was industrialized. The largest developing country to sign was
Argentine. Others were mostly tiny island states apparently fearful of being drowned if the worst global
warming predictions ever came true: Antigua and Barbuda, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa and the Seychelles.

ANNOUNCER OF 'WARMEST YEAR"WINS PROMOTION
The man who announced that 1997 was "the warmest year on record," despite satellite data showing it was
actually one of the coolest of the past 20 years, has been rewarded with a promotion. Climatologist Thomas
Karl, senior scientist at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, was promoted to director on April 1. His
controversial declaration that 1997 was the warmest year was based on combining land temperatures with
water temporarily warmed by El Nino. Without the warmer water, 1997 slipped to fifth warmest on land
(since 1880).
In 1989, however, Karl demonstrated in a published research paper that when land temperatures were
corrected for the urban heat-island effect, the years around 1940 emerged as the warmest. But that was then.
Measurements from U.S. Weather satellites and balloons, meanwhile, continue to show a gradual cooling,
with 1997 the seventh coldest year since the measurements began in 1979.

 CLIMATE WATCH
IBMIEF
NATURE MAGAZINE'S ETHICS QUESTIONED: PUBLICATION ACCUSED OF RUSHING
REVIEW PROCESS AT VICE PRESIDENT'S REQUEST
Nature, the proud UK-based scientific publication, has been accused of allowing itself to become a tool of
Vice President Al Gore's political campaign on global warming by rushing the peer review process of a
controversial study questioning the accuracy of satellite temperature readings. The process was rushed at the
request of the Vice President's staff, according to reports.
At the same time, neither the authors of the new study nor the magazine would agree to the normal
professional practice of delaying publication until a response could be included from the scientists whose
work was being questioned.
The story of Nature's agreement to rush the review process to accommodate the Vice President was told last
week in the inaugural edition of a new biweekly, The Climate Change Report,* and partly in a "Dear
Colleague" letter by Congressman John Peterson (R-PA) . Peterson noted that the authors had already
distributed their article widely to political sources without waiting for peer review or publication. "This
misuse of research in order to put pressure on Congress is absolutely appalling," he wrote.
The reason the Vice President was so anxious to see the article in print was that it appeared to have discovered
an error in the readings of U.S. Weather satellites, which have shown a consistent cooling trend in the earth's
atmosphere over the past two decades. A staff member reported that Gore was "ecstatic" over the study and
wanted to immediately use it in his speeches.
However, the scientists responsible for the U.S. Weather satellite data, John Christy and Roy Spencer, while
acknowledging the technical error, noted that it made no difference to the satellite findings of a global cooling
trend. Their detailed response will be submitted to Nature. The magazine's editors declined to answer
questions.
NEW RESEARCH CONTRADICTS WARMING THEORY
New research has found that the ice sheet across southern Greenland is not growing, contrary to the statements
of global warming proponents who have often cited a thickening ice sheet on Greenland as evidence of global
warming.
The study, published in the March 27 issue of Science, found "no significant change in the overall state of the
Greenland ice sheet," said University of Missouri-Columbia researcher Curt Davis, lead author of the study.

`By the middle of the next century, global warming will cause the Everglades to beflooded, over-heat
millions of acres of cold-waterfish habitat and dry out wetlands needed by ducks and other animals . . .
and sea levels will rise to inundate 5,000 square miles of land, said David Gardner, an assistant
administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
—Orlando Sentinel, March 24

* Global Press, Washington, D.C. Telephone: (202) 667-2855 Fax: (202) 667-2922
GLOBAL CLIMATE COALITION • 1275 K St. NW • Suite 890 • Washington, DC 20005 • Press Office (202) 628-3622