wfn.org | End Denial of Global Warming

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (374
notes).

Note 374 by UMNS on Oct. 7, 1997 at 17:03 Eastern (4025 characters).

CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue  	562(10-71B){374}
		Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722  	Oct. 7, 1997

Clergy-legislator urges end
to denial of global warming

	WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- A United Methodist minister who is also a member of the
Oregon legislature expressed both optimism and pessimism after attending the
White House conference on climate change at Georgetown University here Oct. 6.
	"We're in deep denial in this country," said the Rev. Frank Shields, minister
of the Sunnyside United Methodist Church in East Portland, Ore. He contrasted
the clear skies he saw on his first flight across the country some years ago
with what he sees now, when every city is cloaked in haze.
	On a day when the temperature in Washington soared to near record levels,
President Clinton opened the conference by urging decisive action to counter
the threat of global warming, which he said had the "potential for serious
climate disruption."
	Vice President Gore and most of the president's cabinet were present. Also in
attendance were congressmen and at least two hundred invited guests, including
many business executives.
	Shields said a Harvard professor presented information at the conference that
reported agreement by 2,500 scientists that the greenhouse effect is a real
threat.
	Jaydee Hanson, United Methodist Board of Church and Society staff person who
also attended, said that most of the scientific denial of the threat
originates from about four scientists who are heavily subsidized by the oil
and coal industries. He added that a Texaco executive emerged from the
conference to say he saw no need for the company to change anything it was
doing.
	Shields cited a cartoon he saw recently in which the people on the Russian
space station Mir called to earth with an emergency message saying their
system for manufacturing oxygen was failing and they did not have enough water
and food, but the people on earth radioed back that the same conditions
prevailed on the planet's surface.
	Shields, who is vice chairman of the environment and energy committee of the
Oregon legislature, said people "do not want to admit that we have an effect"
on the climate.
	"There are individual things people can do," he stressed.
	When people have a short drive to work, they release less carbon dioxide into
the air -- an important factor in global warming. If their car gets 32 miles
to the gallon instead of 15, that is cutting the emission of this gas in half,
he said.  But using public transportation is even better, he added.
	Portland has done a lot with mass transit and is developing more light rail,
he said. But an essential factor is the effort "to contain our urban growth
boundary," he explained.
	"Some of the most fertile land in the world" is located just outside that
boundary, Shields said, so by law it is reserved for farming. When there is
pressure to extend the urban boundary for development, the discussion takes
place in a public forum and hilly sections not good for agriculture are
rezoned for building. Fertile land is preserved in "exclusive farm-use zones,"
he added.
	Instead of urban sprawl, the city has "very pleasant neighborhoods" that he
likened to those of a European city. 
	"It's a wonderful city to live in," he declared.
	Oregon, he said, has led the way in legislation, having been one of the first
states to pass a bottle law -- which requires beverages to be packaged in
recyclable containers with a mandatory deposit to encourage their return --
and the first to legislate against the use of chloroflourocarbons,
ozone-depleting gasses.
	Business keeps urging slow or no change, predicting dire consequences for the
economy, Shields said. But, he stated, this year Oregon passed a law requiring
new power plants to be built with a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse
emissions. The bill was written by the bi-partisan environment and energy
committee.
	"Nobody's panicked about it," he said. "Utility prices haven't been
affected."
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