Global warming is real and the United States should support the U.N.-led scientific effort to deal with the problem, a review commissioned by the White House concludes. Citing concerns about the science and economics of solutions, President Bush had said earlier he would no longer work with a U.N.-led treaty process. But the report provides what one source described as a way for Bush to return to the talks ahead of a trip next week to Europe, where his position has been roundly criticized. The IPCC reports provide the foundation for U.N.-led talks that have been held since a climate change treaty was first drafted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997.
Temperatures are, in fact, rising.
The 11-member NAS panel includes James Hansen, a federal scientist who in 1988 raised awareness about the possibility of human activity causing global warming, and Sherwood Rowland, who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his ozone research. Another government source said the United States intends to participate in the next round of U.N. talks, set for Bonn, Germany, in July. But the source added the administration is still weighing what it would bring to the table. A panel of the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the current body of knowledge about global warming at the request of the White House. Click above for highlights of the report.