Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The U.S. government response to global change: Analysis and appraisal

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is evidence that the processes of greenhouse warming, depletion of stratospheric ozone, and acid precipitation are likely to have increasingly harmful effects in the next few decades. Though there are uncertainties, we do not have the luxury of deferring all action until the predicted changes are more fully ascertained. Major policy and budgetary decisions must be reached. The situation calls for coherent, stable, but flexible policies to provide the base for coordinated interagency programs of observation, research, analysis, and regulation, as well as for international negotiations concerning global change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References and Notes

  1. The concentration for 1858 was measured from air extracted from Antarctic and Greenland ice cores; since 1958 atmospheric concentration has been monitored continuously (Ramanathan, V, Cicerone, R. J., Singh, H. B., and Kiehl, J. T.: 1985, J. Geophys. Res. 90, 5547).

    Google Scholar 

  2. McElroy, M. B. and Salawitch, R. J.: 1989, Science 243, 763.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Molina, M. J. and Rowland, F. S.: 1974, Nature 249, 810.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Rowland, F. S.: 1989, Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Gases, and Climate Change, Nat. Acad. Sci. Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Reported in Present State of Knowledge of the Upper Atmosphere, 1988: An Assessment Report (NASA Ref. Publ. 1208, 1988).

  6. Chamberlain, J., Foley, H., Hammer, D., MacDonald, G., Rothaus, O., and Ruderman, M.: 1981, The Physics and Chemistry of Acid Precipitation, JASON Tech. Rep 81-25, SRI International.

  7. Schwartz, S. E.: 1989, Science 243, 753.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Nat. Acid Precip. Assess. Prog. (NAPAP): 1987, Interim Assessment: The Causes and Effects of Acidic Depsoition, Vol. 1, Executive Summary, U.S. Govt. print. Off.

  9. Schulze, E. D.: 1989, Science 243, 776.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Oden, S.: 1976, Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 6, 137.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Seinfeld, J. H.: 1989, Science 243, 745.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Neftel, A., Beer, J., Oeschger, H., Zurcher, F., and Finkel, R. C.: 1985, Nature 314, 611.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Nordhaus, W. D. and Yohe, G. W.: 1983, Changing Climate, Nat. Res. Council, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Schneider, S. H.: 1989, Science 243, 771.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: 1990, IPCC Scientific Assessment, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hansen, J. and Lebedeff, S.: 1987, J. Geophys. Res. 92, 13345.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Peltier, W. R. and Tushingham, A. M.: 1989, Science 244, 806.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Houghton, R. A. and Woodwell, G. M.: 1989, Scientific American 260, 36.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Lindzen, R. S.: 1990, Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 71, 288. This paper in manuscript form and a paper by F. Seitz, R. Jastrow, and W. A. Nierenberg (Scientific Prespectives on the Greenhouse Problem) published in 1989 by the George C. Marshall Institute, a Washington think-tank, may have been responsible for the Bush administration's refusal in November 1989 to support international efforts to limit CO2 emissions [Roberts, L.: 1989, Science 246, 992; Kerr, R. A.: 1989, Science 246, 1118].

    Google Scholar 

  20. Study of Critical Environmental Problems (SCEP): 1970, Man's Impact on the Global Environment, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Comm. for Global Atmos. Res. Prog.: 1975, Understanding Climatic Change: A Program for Action, Nat. Acad. Sci., Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Geoph. Res. Board: 1977, Energy and Climate: Studies in Geophysics, NAS/NRC, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Carbon Dioxide Assessment Comm.: 1983, Changing Climate, Nat. Res. Council, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  24. MacCracken, M. C. and Luther, F. M. (eds.): 1985, Detecting the Climatic Effects of Increasing Carbon Dioxide, Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C.; White, M. R. (ed.): 1985, Characterization of Information Requirements for Studies of CO 2 Effects, Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C.; Mac-Cracken, M. C. and Luther, F. M. (eds.): 1985, Projecting the Climatic Effects of Increasing Carbon Dioxide, Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C.; Trabalka, J. R. (ed.): 1985, Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and the Global Carbon Cycle, Dept. of Energy, Washington D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Boden, T. A., Kanciruk, P., Farrell, M. P.: 1990, Trends '90: A Compendium of Data on Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide Information Center, Oak Ridge Nat. Lab., Oak Ridge, Tenn.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Smith, J. B. and Tirpak, D. A. (eds.): 1988, The Potential Effects of Global Change on the U.S., Executive Summary, EPA draft report, Washington, D.C.

  27. Earth System Sciences Committee: 1986, Earth System Science - Overview: A Program for Global Change, NASA, Washington, D.C.; Earth System Sciences Committee: 1988, Earth System Science - A Closer View, NASA, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Budget figures adapted from a Congressional Budget Office study entitled ‘The NASA Program in the 1990s and Beyond’.

  29. Nat. Clim. Prog. Office: 1988, National Climate Program: Five Year Plan, 1989–1993, Dept. of Commerce, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Committee on Earth Sciences: 1989, Our Changing Planet: The FY 1990 Research Plan, Fed. Coord. Council for Sci., Eng., Tech., Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Nat. Res. Council: 1990, The U.S. Global Change Research Program: An Assessment of FY 1991 Plans, Pts. I and II, Nat. Acad. Press, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Committee on Earth Sciences: 1990, Our Changing Planet: The FY 1991 U.S. Global Change Research Program, Fed. Coord. Council for Sci., Eng., Tech., Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Com. on Earth and Environmental Sciences: 1991, Our Changing Planet: The FY 1992 U.S. Global Change Research Program, Fed. Coord. Council for Sci., Eng., Tech., Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  34. World Commission on Environment and Development (G. H. Brundtland, Ch.): 1987, Our Common Future, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: 1990, Policy Makers' Summaries by Working Groups I, II, III, WMO-UNEP, June.

  36. Nitze, W. A.: 1990, Science 249, 607.

    Google Scholar 

  37. The history of events concerning stratospheric ozone from 1973 to 1988 is recounted by S. Roan: 1989, Ozone Crisis: The 15-Year Evolution of a Sudden Global Emergency, John Wiley & Sons, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Committee on Impacts of Stratospheric Change: 1976, Halocarbons: Environmental Effects of Chlorofluoromethane Release, NAS/NRC, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  39. UN Environmental Program: 1987, Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, UNEP.

  40. Adapted from Nat. Acid Precip. Assessment Prog.: 1989, 1988 Annual Report.

  41. Comm. Atmos. Transport and Chem. Transform. in Eastern North Amer. (J. Calvert, Ch.): 1983, Acid Deposition-Atmospheric Processes in Eastern North America, NAS/NRC, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Marshall, E.: 1989, Science 244, 517.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.

    Robert G. Fleagle

Authors
  1. Robert G. Fleagle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fleagle, R.G. The U.S. government response to global change: Analysis and appraisal. Climatic Change 20, 57–81 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00144108

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00144108

Keywords

Search

Navigation