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Statement of Issue


Climate: The Earth's atmosphere is changing. Levels of "greenhouse gases" like carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are rising steadily, and the most likely explanation is that man-made industrial processes are responsible. As a result, the average global temperature is increasing. Warmer temperatures have many varied effects, such as shrinking glaciers, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, changes in many plants’ growing cycles, and possibly severe weather shifts.

There are four possible ways to manage the levels of CO2 and most other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere:

• Conservation: Use carbon fuels more efficiently by making our buildings smarter and our vehicles lighter and more efficient.

• Carbon capture: Capture the CO2 from the smokestacks and inject it into the ground. Carbon capture is new, untested technology; even if it works, it will only work on power plants, not mobile polluters like automobiles or airplanes.

• Alternative energy: Switch to non-carbon energy sources, such as solar, wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy.

• Carbon removal: Extracting CO2 from the atmosphere, either through an industrial process or by (for example) encouraging the rapid growth of plants and sinking the plant materials where they can't decompose and release CO2 back into the atmosphere.

For many years, there has been a controversy about the degree to which human activity has or could affect the climate. As more data has accumulated, almost all scientists have now concluded that human activity has altered the climate, and will continue to alter it. The current great debate is how much the continuation of current industrial pollution will affect our planet, and us. If the effects turn out to be as large as many climate scientists believe, then a devastating change of climate could be on the horizon. On the other hand, some scientists believe the effects will be mild, or that the consequences of the changes won't be as harmful to ecosystems and the human population. The question is, what do we want our government's stance to be? Should we try to prevent climate change at any cost, or take a more modest approach by reducing climate change as much as possible without damaging the economy? Or do we assume that we will be able to ride out the storm, and go on with business as usual? And what steps, if any, should we take to increase our ability to adapt, when or if major changes occur?