
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990                   TAG: 9006110178
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GLOBAL HEAT

ON THE QUESTION of global warming, the United States has been cut adrift from its European allies. The last hawser was severed by none other than Britain's Prime Minister Thatcher, who declared: "The problems do not lie in the future, they are here and now. And it is our children and our grandchildren who are already growing up who will be affected."

Thatcher thus broke with the Bush administration on the issue and joined other European leaders. She promised that over the next 15 years, Britain will eliminate growth in carbon-dioxide emissions - if other industrialized countries do the same.

Departing from the policies of his predecessor, George Bush has taken environmentalism as a presidential cause. He has made some good appointments and taken some positive steps. But so far, he has offered more talk than action. Global warming - the greenhouse effect that threatens wide-scale climate change - was to be high on his agenda. But he has played for time, calling for study, and more study.

Scientists wouldn't claim that all the answers are in hand. But there's a remarkable degree of consensus. A United Nations-sponsored panel of experts concludes that - if nothing is done to abate global warming - temperatures worldwide will rise 2 degrees within 35 years and more than 6 degrees by the end of the 21st century. Such seemingly small numbers can lead to drastic changes in climate.

The conclusions are based on the work of more than 300 climate experts around the world, and the report has been called the most comprehensive examination of the issue yet. Thatcher, not easily swayed on such matters, appears convinced. Enough so to say, in effect: America, now it's up to you.

In the White House, the concern seems to be that measures to head off global warming will go too far and cost too much. But European nations, among our strongest competitors for trade, are properly worried that not enough will be done.

Study should continue. But meanwhile, the United States should join others to require sharp reductions in CO2 emissions. That would be good for the environment and for health, no matter what its effect on climate.

by CNB