TL: 'COMPLACENT' U.S. CAN ADAPT TO GLOBAL WARMING?
SO: Greenpeace International - ECO NAIROBI #4 (GP)
DT: Sept. 12, 1991
Keywords: atmosphere climate change us greenpeace gp 
rising seas problems / 

Scientists in the US have come up with research that the White
House could use to bolster its position on climate change, by
suggesting that the nation could adapt to a warmer climate `at
reasonable cost.'

News agencies reported last week that a 14-member committee of
the National Academy of Sciences has recommended diversifying
water supplies, improving insulation in buildings and encouraging
conservation of as many animal species as possible as a `natural
protection against surprises, shocks, climatic and otherwise.'

There was little comfort for developing countries, however: the
committee expects them to suffer more trouble adapting to global
warming.

American business and agriculture, in contrast, should have an
easier time. The committee's report says `the capacity of humans
to adapt is evident in the rapid technological, economic and
political changes of the past 90 years.' Committee chairman Paul
E. Waggoner said the time to start adapting was now.

Various members of the committee have already disagreed with the
report, complaining that its tone is `complacent and
unwarranted.' Another viewed it as `somewhat optimistic.'

It suggests that since a warming climate might force some
endangered species to move to new habitats there is a need for
"corridors for movement, to assisting species... when their
natural environments are threatened."

One European delegate commenting on the US report asked whether
this meant shifting the Everglades to Canada.

Biodiversity has no price.

Greenpeace has questioned whether mid-western farmers in the US -
who lost more than one billion dollars in failed crops following
the 1980's droughts - have been consulted.

Dr Jim Titus, the principal sea-level rise scientist at the EPA
in Washington, has calculated the cost of adapting to a one metre
sea level rise to be anything up to $US400 billion a year. A
Dutch study estimated the global cost of deep cuts of CO2 at $30
billion a year. Conservative economists estimate $300 billion a
year.
**   [Greenbase Inventory October 27, 1991 ]
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