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Young Lectures House on 'Polar Bear Pack,' Oil-Guzzling Nations

Posted on: Saturday, 20 May 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Liz Ruskin, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

May 20--WASHINGTON -- Climatologists around the world may agree that burning fossil fuels is a significant contributor to global warming, but U.S. Rep. Don Young isn't buying it.

"I am a little bit concerned when everything that is wrong is our fault, that the human factor creates all the damages on this globe," the Alaska Republican said during a debate on the U.S. House floor Thursday. "That is pure nonsense."

U.S. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., suggested Young sounded like one of the "charter members of the Flat Earth Society."

Young was working to kill a statement in an appropriations bill that says Congress agrees that people are contributing to global warming and that carbon emissions should be limited.

Young said we need "a good study" and a debate among scientists. That launched U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Mass., a former chemistry professor with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on a mini lecture to explain the rapid accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the last 40 years. Sounding a bit like the late Carl Sagan, Olver spoke of the carbon dioxide record gathered from ice samples two miles deep in the Antarctic ice. The ice holds pockets of air trapped as long as 400,000 years ago.

"Suddenly, within the last 40 years, concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has smashed through the 400,000-year maximum of 280 parts per million to a 380 parts per million level and continues to rise," Olver said.

Another former educator, U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrist, R-Maryland, then continued the lesson, explaining how tiny increases in the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere could have big consequences on earth.

Young allowed that the earth may be warming in some areas, but "I just read a report, in fact, that Greenland is cooling."

NASA issued a statement in February that began: "The loss of ice from Greenland doubled between 1996 and 2005, as its glaciers flowed faster into the ocean in response to a generally warmer climate, according to a NASA/University of Kansas study."

The study was published in the journal Science.

Young also told his colleagues that alarmists are too quick to blame America for the carbon emissions.

"It is always the fault of the Americans," Young complained during the debate. "It is never the fault of the bigger countries that burn as many barrels of oil as we are doing today -- not per capita, but as many barrels of oil. It is never their fault."

It was unclear what other big oil-consuming countries he was referring to.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States burned 20.6 million barrels of oil a day last year. The second biggest consumer, China, burned just under 7 million.

Young's steadfastness irked U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., who thought Young, of all congressmen, should care, since Alaska is warming faster than the rest of the country.

"While Alaska melts away, their congressman will be down here in D.C.," Dicks said, "and everybody will be wondering, 'what ever happened to Alaska?' "

Among other signs of global warming, Dicks said: "The polar bears are dying because there is not enough ice."

Young said Dicks didn't know what he was talking about.

"If you look at any of the studies that are taking place now, the polar bear pack is very healthy and, in fact, increasing. This is science from the Fish and Wildlife people. Read that. They will tell you we are increasing the numbers, not decreasing," Young said.

Rosa Meehan, supervisor of marine mammal management for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska, said she doesn't have any such data.

"Up until five years ago we assumed the population was stable, and we're questioning that now," she said.

The agency is considering whether to list the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

Alaska's southern Beaufort Sea polar bears are changing their behaviors, she said. They are spending more time on the coast in the fall because the sea ice they usually hunt seals from is retreating, she said.

A team of polar bear researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey just returned from the Arctic, but their data hasn't been analyzed yet, USGS biologist Geoffrey York said.

Meredith Kenny, Young's spokeswoman, said her boss isn't entirely skeptical about climate change.

"He doesn't doubt something is happening, but it's not as drastic as they make it out," she said.

As for any misstatements Young may have made, she said, "He might have been caught up in the moment, in the debate."

In any event, Young prevailed Thursday and the statement on climate change was removed from the bill. He had challenged it as inappropriate for a spending bill and won on technical grounds.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Anchorage Daily News

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