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Posted on Feb. 3, 2007
By KAREN DILLON and KEVIN MURPHY
The Kansas City Star
Advocates Cheer Report on Climate
Their wish is that a global warming study blaming humans will bring results.
Scientists around the world reached a clear verdict Friday that humans are causing global warming, and attention in Kansas City and nationally has turned to doing something about it.
The scientists and others already worried about global warming hope the dire tone of Friday's report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will spur action.
"This is the smoking gun," said Philip Clapp, president of National Environmental Trust, a nonprofit organization in Washington. "You now have them saying the evidence seems incontrovertible, and we are 90 percent certain. That is as certain as science ever gets."
Growing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases - caused largely by burning fossil fuel for electricity and gasoline for motor vehicles - are warming the planet, worsening drought, raising sea levels and causing more intense storms, the panel representing 113 countries found.
The 21-page report issued in Paris was six years in the making. A volume to be issued in April will focus on adapting to global warming and another in May on how to reduce greenhouse gases, made up mostly of carbon dioxide.
Charles Rice, a Kansas State University agronomy professor and lead author of the volume due out in May, was encouraged by the strong message of scientists and government leaders that humans are affecting climate change.
"They are reducing the uncertainty," Rice said. "Hopefully, it will stimulate some activity."
In the May volume, Rice will report on how greenhouse gases can be reduced by techniques such as no-till farming, in which crop seeds are planted by slicing them into the soil. Untilled soil stores carbon dioxide rather than releasing it into the air.
Researchers in forestry, agriculture and geography from Kansas State, the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri have had roles in the panel's report, from researching to writing to reviewing.
Some skeptics have said the strong language in Friday's report is as much political as scientific and is intended to alarm policymakers worldwide.
But the science in the report is sound, said Johannes Feddema, a KU associate professor of geography who wrote a section on how forests and crops can moderate global warming. One chapter had 1,600 reviews by scientists and government officials, he said.
"It's not just someone's top-of-the-head opinion," Feddema said.
Ken Midkiff, chairman of the Missouri chapter of the Sierra Club, said efforts to control greenhouse gases should not be viewed as a hardship.
"We don't need to give up our lifestyle and live in a cave with no automobile, no running water, no heat and no electricity," Midkiff said. "We just need to change the sources of the energy that supports us from fossil to renewable fuels, from coal to wind and solar, from gasoline made from fossil oil to gasoline made from renewable sources."
White House response
The White House on Friday defended President Bush's record on global climate change, pointing to his 2001 statement that human activity is largely to blame for the increase in greenhouse gases. Bush has devoted $29 billion to global climate change initiatives, a White House statement said.
But the White House reiterated its opposition Friday to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said such caps could have economic impacts such as job losses. More than a half-dozen bills have been introduced in Congress, mostly by Democrats, calling for some controls on carbon dioxide production. The U.S. contributes about one-fourth of the world's greenhouse gases. In Kansas City, dozens of people are working on a far-reaching plan to reduce greenhouse gases.
About 150 other cities around the country also are developing such plans; 50 cities already have done so. Planners are grappling with how much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how to do it.
There are easy ways, such as using fluorescent light bulbs, turning off lights and reducing electricity consumption. But after such simple adjustments, it becomes more difficult and expensive as industries have to switch technologies and ways of doing business.
Several weeks ago Kansas City's climate-change group was considering a proposal to roll back emissions to year 2000 levels. But some members say a bigger reduction is needed and quickly, possibly to pre-1990 levels.
"Time is not our friend," said Bob Berkebile, a national leader in energy and environmental design. "My feeling is we have not hundreds of years, but decades, to make this shift to get back to pre-industrial levels."
A chamber debate
The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce already is debating the issue.
Last month a subcommittee of the chamber's energy task force issued a draft position paper that includes a recommendation to reduce greenhouse gases. If approved, it would be the first time the chamber has included that in its energy position paper.
The draft said the chamber supports a federal energy policy that "includes economically and scientifically sustainable policies" and programs to:
-Maximize energy independence and efficiencies in production and use.
-Reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
-Promote a stable, diverse and sustainable supply of energy.
Kristi Wyatt, senior vice president, said it was too early to discuss the draft publicly.
Kansas City Power & Light also is discussing ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Michael Chesser, chief executive officer of Great Plains Energy, the parent company of KCP&L, said recently that the utility plans to expand its energy efficiency programs.
Berkebile, of Kansas City, said the climate panel's report is a beacon for change.
"The bottom line is ever more clear," Berkebile said. "The debate is over. Not only our kids' future hinges on this, but so does ours."
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