a006  2229  11 Nov 87
PM-Greenhouse Effect, Bjt,0826
Worry About Greenhouse Effect Causes Second Thoughts About Nuclear
Power
By DAVID GOELLER
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Fear that a ''greenhouse effect'' accelerated by
burning fossil fuels could disrupt the world's climate with
disastrous results is leading some environmentalists to reconsider
their stance against nuclear power.
    A prominent Senate environmentalist, Democrat Tim Wirth of Colorado,
broke ranks this week as he chaired two days of Energy Committee
hearings at which scientists warned of the need to reduce the flow of
carbon dioxide, methane and other gases into the atmosphere.
    Two themes emerged from this latest round of congressional hearings
into the greenhouse effect: The world must find alternatives to
fossil-fuel energy sources such as coal and oil, and the United
States must come up with an energy policy to lead the way.
    Wirth talked of energy conservation and renewable resources such as
solar power, but he also said the nation must look for ways to make
nuclear generators safer. He acknowledged that such a view conflicted
with the no-nukes philosophy within the environmental movement.
    ''This is counter-political (but) we ought to be a lot more
aggressive pursuing nuclear power,'' he said.
    The scientists reiterated testimony heard at hearings over the last
18 months: The Earth's atmosphere is being overloaded with gases that
trap het like a greenhouse, causing polar ice to melt and flood
coastal areas, and bringing about shifts in weather patterns that can
produce drought in breadbaskets such as the Midwest.
    Over the past century, the global climate has warmed by about two
degrees Fahrenheit. Sometime early in the next century, this heating
could double, making the Earth warmer than it has been for 100
million or more years, the committee was told.
    While no one is yet linking it to the greenhouse effect, scientists
say that 1987 is the hottest year on record. Computer models predict
that unless greenhouse gases are reduced, temperature averages could
rise by eight degrees or more by the end of the next century.
    The scientists say that the warming is occurring faster than
previously believed, and that that even if greenhouse gases were
controlled tomorrow, the levels already in the atmosphere may have
committed the planet to a temperature rise of from two to six
degrees.
    ''The greenhouse effect is real,'' James Hansen, an atmospheric
scientist who has done work for the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, told the Wirth hearings.
    ''The warming is not just a theory but a reality waiting to
happen,'' added Donald Blake of the University of California-Irvine.
He and other scientists said the only disagreement is over the timing
and magnitude of its effects.
    Fossil fuels are not the only culprits. Termites and rice paddies
release methane, a heat-trapping gas. And as the atmosphere warms,
the oceans release increasing amounts of methane.
    But the worst greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, pumped into the
atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and released
from the soil when a tropical rain forest is cleared for a Third
World economic development project.
    The United States is looking to its huge coal deposits as a future
replacement for oil. China is basing its industrial growth on coal.
    One of the biggest energy research programs in this country is a $5
billion government-industry effort to find a way to burn coal more
efficiently and without releasing the chemicals that produce acid
rain.
    But witnesses told the hearings there is still no economically
feasible method of burning coal without producing carbon dioxide.
They said any clean-coal technology that encouraged more use of coal
would only exacerbate the greenhouse problem.
    Wirth and others said U.S. energy policy is in many ways at odds
with dealing with atmospheric overheating. He cited cuts in funding
for conservation and renewable energy research, and decisions
allowing automakers to build vehicles that are less fuel-efficient.
    ''There is no doubt that we need to begin weighing the steps that
should be taken over the near term as well as the long term,'' Wirth
said.
    Gus Speth, president of the World Resources Institute, called on
Congress to establish a national climate-protection policy. ''This is
the most serious environmental issue of them all,'' he said.
    Gordon MacDonald, vice president and chief scientist of the MITRE
Corp., a consulting firm, said ''a major redirection of the United
States' energy policy is required.'' Among his suggestions were safer
nuclear power and a tax on carbon dioxide emissions.
    Officials of the Reagan administration, which recently led the
industrial world into setting restrictions on chemicals that destroy
ozone in the upper atmosphere, said a greenhouse policy is still
under discussion.
    ''We do take this problem very seriously,'' said William Nitze, a
deputy assistant secretary of state. ''Ultimately, governments
(around the world) are going to have to make some of the key policy
choices.''
    
 
AP-NY-11-12-87 0112EST
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