have been due to a combination of two human factors: greenhouse warming and cooling from sulfur pollution, according to this study. Solar or random fluctuations, and oceanic changes shuffling heat from the tropics to the Arctic may be the cause of 70-year oscillations seen in global temperatures. In 1994, a meeting of hundreds of the world=s scientists reached a consensus that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollutants represent the most important factor currently altering the climate, and drown out other effects which cause global cooling (Monastersky, September, 1994). The recent study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that solar variations and sulfur pollution were too weak to counter the warming influence of carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), nitrous oxide, and other heat-trapping gases. Although sulfur droplets and smoke from fires reflect sunlight back toward space, such pollutants do not exert a uniform cooling effect because of their spotty distribution around the globe.
This report also noted the 1992 treaty, signed by 155 nations, pledging to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at an unspecified level. Developed nations agreed in a nonbinding way to scale back their emissions to 1990 amounts by the year 2000. The IPCC assessment concluded that the limits discussed in this treaty will not stop the atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases. A 1997 agreement emerging from the Kyoto summit was signed by 160 countries and proposed legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (McCurry, 1997). In summary, the Kyoto Protocol determined that:
- Industrialized nations must cut total anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases by 52 percent from 1990 amounts in the commitment period 2008 to 2012.
- Six gases will be cut. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide reductions must be based on 1990 amounts, but hydrofluoroc...