The EPA predicts that a three degree rise in average temperature could double heat related deaths in Chicago and Los Angeles. By international treaty, the U.S. is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to eight percent below 1990 levels by 2008. But progress has been hampered by politically powerful industries such as oil producers and automakers. On the other side of the coin, a number of large insurance companies, worried about claims from the predicted increase in major storms, have joined the call to control global warming. The migration of maple sugar trees seems like one of the more benign effects of global warming.
Weather is taken seriously.
In 1997, that amount jumped to 624,000 tons, and, if left unchecked, the emissions will climb to 716,000 tons in 2005, according to the city's climate change task force. In the draft of a recently released proposal, Burlington commits to a six percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The action plan calls for more energy efficiency in municipal buildings, a greater reliance on biomass fueled energy plants, and an aggressive public education effort called the Ten Percent Climate Challenge Campaign, which encourages businesses and homeowners to cut their own greenhouse gas emissions. In Portland, Oregon, officials say that global warming worries are a basic concern. Mountain runoff supplies Portland's drinking water.