Global Warming: Addressing Its Effects

At a conference of twenty nations assembled in London on March 15, 2005, Gordon Brown, Britain's Finance Minister addressed the audience regarding the seriousness of the effects of global warming, saying, "We have sufficient evidence that human-made climate change is the most far-reaching and almost certainly the most threatening of all the environmental changes facing us" (Timmons).

The economic changes predicted by experts such as Mr. Brown, as well as changes to weather patterns, human property, human life, and the environment have led to the recent enactment in February 2005 of the Kyoto agreement, which places national limits on carbon emissions. The United States has refused to back the agreement, citing that the emissions limits it prescribes are, in the words of James L. Connaughton, the U.S. delegate to the agreement talks and Chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality "unreasonable" (Timmons). Mr. Connaughton, a member of the Bush Administration says the agreement would jeopardize the American economy and furthermore that there has not yet been conclusive research outlining the extent of human contribution to global warming via the emission of greenhouse gasses (Timmons).

While the official stance of the United States is at odds with international agreement about the human contribution and logical response to global warming, the effects of global warming are not disputed. Scientists around the world are in agreement that

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Category: Science - G