California Expert Software

Introduction
Ostriches are pulling their heads out of the sand, and running about. Perhaps that's because someone gave them a hotfoot. As reported in tonight's Wall St Journal(!) (subscription required), the Conference Board agrees that human acitvities cause global warming.

Recently, the Bush Administration admitted that global climate change has something to do with human activities (see below). That admission was taken as a sign of Administration policy change, although we have no idea in what direction. Given the utter rigidity of the Bushies, and their attention to their wealthy friends' pocketbooks, making any allowance for reality is remarkable.

Like Tolstoy, I think governments are forced to behave as they do because of "circumstances." It's a fact that global climate change is happening. The spate of hurricanes in Florida is a likely consequence and example of that change. No matter what the religious preferences of high Officials, things will happen as they happen. Just to survive, sooner or later, those Officials will have to accept what is happening.

There's a couple of other things like this: stem cell research, oil prices, conservation and gas guzzlers for example. I am sure you readers can think of lots more cases.

Evidence Grows
That Global Warming
Is a Priority

By JEFFREY BALL
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 8, 2004; Page A2

Taking a firmer stance in the debate over global warming, the Conference Board, a nonprofit organization whose members include major corporations, issued a report citing increasing scientific consensus that humans are contributing to the warming of the planet and predicting "increased pressure" on corporate boards to address the issue.

The Conference Board, based in New York, is better known for its monthly surveys of consumer confidence and economic indicators than for its pronouncements about matters as politically controversial as global warming. And the approximately 2,000 companies from around the world that make up the group's membership have taken varying positions on global warming -- particularly about whether governments should slap industry with caps on emissions of carbon dioxide and other suspected global-warming gases. Nevertheless, the Conference Board concluded in the report it issued yesterday that "businesses that ignore the debate over climate change do so at their peril."

The report stemmed from a June meeting organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The 11 scientists at the meeting concluded that, despite continuing uncertainty about the severity of the problem, human activities -- chiefly the burning of fossil fuels -- are warming the earth's atmosphere.

...

The Conference Board's report comes less than two weeks after the Bush administration issued a report of its own that raised eyebrows because it said human activities are contributing to global warming. In a periodic report to Congress on government-funded research, including on global warming, the administration said that warmer temperatures in North America over the past half century "were unlikely to be due only to natural climate variations."

...

The scientific conference behind the report was sponsored in part by the Conference Board and the Hewlett Foundation. The report was written by the Conference Board, whose money comes from membership dues from the companies that belong to it.

A Glimmer of Hope