Warm Warnings

If more evidence was needed that global climate change is occurring – and having serious consequences – it arrived in force this week. A report by eight nations, including the United States, warned that the Arctic is already seeing the results of climate change with temperatures rising twice as fast as the rest of the globe and the loss of sea ice the size of Texas and Arizona combined. The result is that some Arctic villages have been relocated to escape melting ice and the subsistence lifestyle of native peoples is in jeopardy as polar bear, seals and caribou are threatened by the warming trend.

Despite this, the United States has yet to take serious action. After the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment was released Monday, a State Department official said the United States needed more science before deciding how to proceed. The emphasis should be on ensuring “continued economic growth and prosperity for our citizens and for citizens throughout the world,” State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The problem with this thinking is that the United States has in recent years dismissed scientific evidence that human activity, mainly the burning of fossil fuels, is changing the climate. The same is true with the Arctic Council, which includes more than 250 scientists from the United States, Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. The council is still negotiating a policy statement to follow its assessment. The United States is reported to want a statement devoid of language saying that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will help ease the problem.

Fortunately, some members of Congress, including Maine’s senators, have been strong advocates of programs and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a major contributor to climate change. “This report serves as another wake-up call that the United States must improve its energy efficiency, further develop its renewable energy resources, and enact strong legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nationwide,” Sen. Susan Collins said on the day the assessment was released. In September, when it became clear the United States sought to distance itself from the Arctic Council findings, Sen. Olympia Snowe signed onto a letter admonishing Secretary of State Colin Powell for not adhering to the group’s recommendations.

Sens. Snowe and Collins have signed on to legislation by Republican Sen. John McCain and Democrat Joe Lieberman to require cuts in U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. Their bill has steadily gained support in the Senate although it fell eight votes short of passage earlier this year and is opposed by the administration.

It is becoming increasingly clear that any action on climate change must come from Congress, not the administration. Last month, Russia signed onto the Kyoto Protocol, meaning the global climate pact will come into effect in February. It will require 39 industrial nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The United States withdrew as a signatory to the agreement in March 2001. Since this country is the largest producer of such gases, the pact will have little effect without U.S. participation.

The result will be more coastal flooding, disrupted pipelines and other infrastructure due to thawing ground and displaced indigenous communities. Hardly the economic prosperity the State Department supports.