Global Climate Change: Hearings Before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session, on the Science and Energy Policy Implications of Global Climate Change and International Agreements Regarding Greenhouse Gas Emissions, May 6 and 12, 1992, Volume 4U.S. Government Printing Office, 1992 - 427 pages |
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Page 204 - Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
Page 43 - There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing, magnitude and regional patterns of climate change, due to our incomplete understanding of: • sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, which affecl predictions of future concentrations.
Page 43 - ... the size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models, but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability. Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming • the unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect from observations is not likely for a decade or more.
Page 44 - Increases in the concentration of the greenhouse gases will reduce the efficiency with which the Earth cools to space and will tend to warm the lower atmosphere and surface. The amount of warming depends on the size of the increase in concentration of each greenhouse gas, the radiative properties of the gases involved, and the concentration of other greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere. It also can depend on local effects such as the variation with height of the concentration of the...
Page 47 - Scenario A (SA90) events and new information have emerged which relate to that scenario's underlying assumptions. These developments include: the London Amendments to the Montreal Protocol; revision of population forecasts by the World Bank and United Nations; publication of the IPCC Energy and Industry Sub-group scenario of greenhouse gas emissions to 2025; political events and economic changes in the former USSR, Eastern Europe and the Middle East; re-estimation of sources and sinks of greenhouse...
Page 175 - Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the...
Page 43 - There are also a number of significant new findings and conclusions which we summarize as follows: Gases and Aerosols • Depletion of ozone in the lower stratosphere in the middle and high latitudes results in a decrease in radiative forcing which is believed to be comparable in magnitude to the radiative forcing contribution of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) (globally-averaged) over the last decade or so. • The cooling effect of aerosols (*) resulting from sulphur emissions may have offset a significant...
Page 205 - These policies and measures will demonstrate that developed countries are taking the lead in modifying longer-term trends in anthropogenic emissions consistent with the objective of the Convention, recognizing that the return by the end of the present decade to earlier levels of anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol would contribute to such modification, and taking into account the differences in these Parties...
Page 46 - CH4 emissions from rice agriculture, in particular Japan, India, Australia, Thailand and China, show that the emissions depend on growing conditions, particularly soil characteristics, and vary significantly. While the overall uncertainty in the magnitude of global emissions from rice agriculture remains large, a detailed analysis now suggests significantly lower annual emissions than reported in IPCC 1990.
Page 50 - GWP values for all non-CO2 gases. The magnitude of the bias depends on the atmospheric lifetime of the gas, and the GWP time horizon. Indirect Global Warming Potentials. — Because of our incomplete understanding of chemical processes, most of the indirect GWPs reported in IPCC 1990) are likely to be in substantial error, and none of them can be recommended.