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Is It Getting Warmer?
| Article
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19756 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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3 / 1991 |
3,148 Words |
| Author
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Michael H. Glantz
Michael H. Glantz is head of the Environmental and
Societal Impacts Group at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. |
DEAD HEAT
The Race against the Greenhouse Effect
Michael Oppenheimer and Robert Boyle
Basic Books, Inc., 1990
268 pp., $19.95
FIRE AND ICE
The Greenhouse Effect, Ozone Depletion, and Nuclear Winter
David E. Fisher
Harper and Row, 1990
232 pp., $19.95
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
Human and Natural Influences
S. Fred Singer, editor
Paragon House, 1990
424 pp., $34.95
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait once again taught the policymakers of the industrialized world--especially of the United States--how dependent their economies are on Middle Eastern oil. This is not the first time they have been reminded.
The first energy crisis in 1973 sparked sharp, worldwide increases in the price of crude oil and, ultimately, the prices of heating and automotive fuels. This crisis occurred during a period of unstable weather conditions that adversely affected food production around the globe. In 1972, the year of the "Great Grain Robbery," the USSR pulled off its largest grain purchase ever from the United States, which at the time was in the midst of a grain glut. The Soviet purchase was subsidized heavily by American taxpayers and reduced American and global food reserves to critical levels. The sale not only deprived needy countries of food but also sent grain prices skyrocketing, further hindering the Third World's ability to purchase sorely needed food. The specter of worldwide famine loomed.
The rapid drawdown of food reserves put great pressure on grain-exporting countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Australia to increase production for export to developing countries, many of which were suffering from severe, drought-related food shortages. Increased production in turn meant a greater dependence on fertilizers, whose production was based on petroleum by-products. Food costs rose around the globe.
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