Word: heatedly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...decade ago, the debate over global warming dealt mainly with whether it was a real problem or a Chicken Little scare story. In theory it made sense: we are burning more and more coal and oil; coal and oil generate carbon dioxide gas; carbon dioxide traps the sun's heat like the glass of a greenhouse. In theory, therefore, the earth's temperature should be on the rise--with potentially disastrous consequences that could include inundated coastlines, drastically altered weather, severe disturbances to agriculture, and tropical diseases' pushing into new territory. But the effect was still too small...
...reason for disagreement is based almost entirely, and naturally enough, on self-interest. The European Union, for example, wants to see industrial nations--its own members included--bring emissions of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases down to 85% of what they were in 1990, and do it within the next 12 years...
...misguided to say there is no link between global warming and recent anomalous El Nino behavior. El Nino is certainly a natural phenomenon, but it occurs because there is a need to move heat out of the tropical Pacific Ocean, where it would otherwise build up. Because global warming caused by increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere disturbs the heat balance, it affects El Nino. The behavior of El Nino in the past 20 years is statistically very unusual compared with that of the previous 100 years. Determining exactly which part of this unusual behavior is connected to global warming...
JAMES P. HOFFA Be careful what you wish for. Focus will now shift to him. He can take the heat; can he stand the light...
Getting Warmer... The heat is on in Kyoto, Japan over an international treaty on greenhouse gas emissions. Even if the governments of the world were to agree, could global warming be stopped? Full story