Word: coale
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Mainstream scientists have been warning for years that by burning oil, coal and other fossil fuels, humans have created a blanket of carbon gases that traps heat in our atmosphere and warms the planet. The last two years were the hottest in recorded history, and recent wild weather patterns suggest that this global warming will bring with it an ever expanding plague of economic and human catastrophes...
...sunny Clinton administration waffle about win-win solutions, job creation through emissions cuts and other Pollyannaish prescriptions, the truth is that only a painful adjustment of the contemporary American lifestyle could achieve that goal. Converting old coal-burning power stations to more energy-efficient forms of electricity production, for example, will be costly. The gas-guzzling SUV can't be the vehicle of choice for the middle class in a nation cutting back its gasoline consumption...
...which accounts for at least one quarter of "greenhouse gas" emissions despite comprising only 4 percent of the world population, is slated for a 7 percent cut from 1990 levels. Reducing emissions, of course, is a painful process for industrialized nations, because it requires cutting back on coal-burning power stations and on the consumption of gasoline and other oil-based fuels. To understand the magnitude of that pain in the U.S., it is worth noting that America's booming economy is continuing to produce substantial annual increases rather than reductions in carbon gas outputs...
...would-be president-elect George W. Bush, that there is a scientific link between global warming and carbon gas emissions. The current talks are being held to meet a deadline for finalizing the 1997 Kyoto treaty, which requires industrialized nations to dramatically reduce emissions from the use of oil, coal and other fossil fuels. Kyoto emerged out of concern that the planet's warming - 1998 was the hottest year on record, and 1999 wasn't far behind - will produce catastrophic climatic effects that will make recent "wild weather" patterns look mild by comparison...
...treaty requires that in the next decade, the industrialized nations cut their carbon gas outputs to a level 5 percent below the 1990 figures. And for a booming U.S. economy whose output levels continue to increase every year, that would mean an economically burdensome 20-30 percent reduction in coal-fired electricity, gasoline consumption and other burning of fossil fuel. Europe is far ahead of the U.S. on the road to reducing its carbon gas outputs, but mostly through taxes on gasoline that push the pump price up past $4 a gallon - a scenario almost unthinkable for any U.S. politician...