AM-97-35 GLOBAL WARMING: A CASE OF THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

Description:

Global Warming is in the news today. With the exception of Scandinavia, no major energy tax laws have been passed to-date. This can change, an event ofmajor importance to refiners. Research and analysis on GW has gradually increased over the past 40 years. Policy development came into the forefront in 1988. Today thousands of scientists, political activists, and government employees are engaged full time in this area. For example, in 1990, modeling of the global climate was being carried out intensively by at least 14 major groups in the USA. The U.S. Government provides funding for GW research and analysis across many departments and agencies.’ This support, for research on climate change (CC), is now around $2 Billion per year. This paper will review the complexities of the Earth’s climate, but focus on the uncertainties involved and on-going policy developments. It is easy to get the conviction, that an overwhelming consensus exists within the scientific community that GW is here and major action must be taken immediately. An effort will be made to highlight the GW debate. The opposing sides in this debate include the proponents --- those who see dire consequences in the near future; and the skeptics, a more conservative group, who are not convinced that the case has been made for such a future.