Global health and environment put in jeopardy

To the editor:

Temperature records for 2001 indicating the year is the second hottest since climate records were first kept 140 years ago will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following evidence regarding global climate patterns. The data are consistent with the 2001 report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This panel of the world's leading environmental atmospheric experts concluded that "most of the observed warming over the past 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations" released into the atmosphere by human activities -- largely from industrialized nations such as the United States.

Following a request by President Bush, the U.S. National Academy of Science drew exactly parallel conclusions to the IPCC. Among climate experts, what doubt there was regarding climate change and its causes has dwindled such that only a biased and politically motivated handful of extremists now claim to doubt the evidence and conclusions of the IPCC.

Seemingly, even the president accepts IPCC and NAS conclusions. Meanwhile, led by politicians on the right wing of the major parties, the president and Congress seem committed to blocking international efforts to address the problem.

By rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, the only international agreement that has been developed to address the issue, and refusing to participate as 165 nations agreed to rules that would reduce human-produced greenhouse gas releases, our leaders place in jeopardy agriculture and forestry activities and human and environmental health within the United States and globally.

ALAN JOURNET

Cape Girardeau