Publications -- Global Warming

Oct 09, 1998

BA #281 – Let States Manage National Forests

The United States Forest Service (USFS) is under fire from both fiscal conservatives and liberal environmentalists - two groups not often on the same side of issues. Fiscal conservatives decry the agency's spendthrift ways and money-losing programs. Environmentalists claim that its logging, mining and grazing programs damage the natural world. Both groups are correct.

Aug 06, 1998

BA #276 – The Endangered Species Act: First Step toward Fixing a Costly Failure

Declaring that "The Endangered Species Act works," Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has announced that within the next two years the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will remove (delist) 33 species from the endangered species list. His claim comes as the ESA is being considered for renewal - the law authorizing it having lapsed in 1992. These 33 delistings will mean that a total of 60 species have been removed from the endangered species list.

Aug 06, 1998

BA #277 – Is the Global Warming Treaty a Threat to National Security?

Most environmentalists, some scientists, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have blamed global warming and all manner of natural catastrophes - hurricanes, floods and even El Niño - on rising levels of greenhouse gases, due primarily to fossil fuel use. On this theory, since most of the increased emissions come from energy use, we must use less energy to reduce the likelihood of environmental apocalypse. However, many scientists are skeptical of the theory that humans are causing global warming.

Jan 23, 1998

BA #256 – Who's Afraid of CO2?

For the past 10 years, carbon dioxide (CO2) has gotten a bad rap. Despite the fact that 95 percent of the CO2 emitted each year is produced by nature, environmentalists started referring to CO2 as a pollutant in 1988 after some scientists claimed that the 30 percent rise in atmospheric CO2 over the last 150 years was attributable to humans and was causing global warming.

Sep 29, 1997

BA #241 – Sick Argument: Global Warming and the Spread of Tropical Diseases

Over the past year the media have reported that one possible effect of global warming will be the expansion of tropical, communicable diseases borne by rodents or parasites into the United States. Fortunately, even if a warmer climate is in the offing, there is no reason for alarm, since the prime factor controlling communicable diseases is not global temperature, but relative wealth and the ecological and medical interventions people use to control diseases and their hosts.

Sep 19, 1997

BA #240 – Kyoto Madness

In December, world leaders will gather in Kyoto, Japan, to consider an international treaty to control emissions of greenhouse gases. Its supporters say the treaty is a necessary step in preventing catastrophic changes in the earth's climate. Its opponents - including leading scientists and economists - say it is likely to do more environmental harm than good.

Aug 20, 1997

BA #238 – The Global Warming Treaty: For U.S. Consumers - All Pain, No Gain

United States negotiators seem intent on signing a treaty this December in Kyoto, Japan, that would drastically curtail energy use in an effort to restrict emissions of greenhouse gases. These gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, trap solar radiation in the atmosphere and warm the earth, making it habitable. If the Clinton administration signs the treaty and the Senate approves it, American consumers will suffer.

Aug 20, 1997

BA #239 – The Global Warming Game China 1 U.S. Workers 0

Timothy Wirth, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, informed a 1996 United Nations conference on climate change in Geneva that the Clinton administration is committed to imposing limits on greenhouse gas emissions as a way to minimize the effects of global warming. Unfortunately, the administration and its supporters do not think it is necessary to impose the same restrictions on developing countries.

Jul 17, 1997

BA #236 – The EPA's Dirty Little Secrets

Do the nation's current clean air standards need to be made more stringent to save the lives of asthmatic children? President Clinton and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say yes. But many mayors, governors and members of Congress of both parties say more evidence is needed before standards are tightened.

May 23, 1997

BA #230 – Myths of Global Warming

Rather than legislating in haste and ignorance and repenting at leisure, our government should maintain rational policies, based on science and adaptable to future discoveries.