Even White House predicts rise in greenhouse gases

The Bush administration's own research shows US greenhouse-gas emissions growing 11 percent between 2002 and 2012.

from the March 8, 2007 edition

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For its part, the administration says it is meeting its goal to reduce "greenhouse-gas intensity," that is, emissions as related to economic growth. Still, notes the Press Trust of India, "US gas emissions that contribute to global warming will grow nearly as fast through the next decade as they did in the previous decade."

The administration's draft report comes a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of hundreds of climate scientists from around the world, concluded that human activity is "very likely" to be behind a pattern of rising temperatures.

The reported increase in US emissions and consequent rise in temperatures "is in line with expectations, but underlines how out of kilter the US government is with world opinion and efforts to tackle climate change," reports the Guardian in London.

The new administration report notes that animal and plant species may be adversely impacted by shifting climate zones. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been holding public hearings in Alaska and Washington, D.C., this week on the federal government's proposed listing of polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Some biologists fear that the loss of year-round Arctic sea ice could reduce bear habitat, particularly since northern latitudes appear to be warming twice as rapidly as the rest of the globe.

At a hearing in Anchorage, Karla Dutton, director of the Alaska office of Defenders of Wildlife, said:

"There's no way around it – in order to conserve polar bear habitat in the long term, we must act immediately to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions, the principal cause of global warming and this Arctic meltdown."

But representatives of the oil and gas industry, some native groups, and Alaska state officials remain wary of any listing which could hamper development.

Tina Cummings, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game told the hearing that polar bears adapt to use land for hunting, and though their preferred food, ice seals, may be declining, bears can find alternative food sources.

The agency is collecting public testimony until April 9. Its decision on listing polar bears is due next January.

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