The Zen of global warming.

• Author: Jones, Teresa Chin

Editor's Note: Most observers of the global warming phenomenon have an awareness of its somewhat controversial nature. And the framework of a move diplomatically to contain the problem exists in the form of the 2005 Kyoto Accord, with 120 signing countries--not including the United States. The problem and any proposed solution, however, contain few uncomplicated elements, according to the authors of this perceptive analysis.

It appears that every generation needs a holier-than-thou ideological mantra (or a new national symbol) with which to wrap themselves virtuously while belaboring their opponents as the political equivalent of demonically possessed.

Was Jesus Christ entirely mortal, entirely divine, or simultaneously entirely mortal and entirely divine? Is "the Union" forever one and inseparable or are the rights of states paramount? Is fascism, communism, Islamic fundamentalism, or vegetarianism the ism-wave of the future? Is pregnancy a question of "choice" or "life"? Is alcohol "Demon Rum" or does a glass of red wine not just enhance but prolong life? Is smoking a cigarette in a restaurant worse than snorting cocaine in its restroom? Can one suffer a Holocaust denier?

Pick your weapon/words and come out slanging.

In this regard, the Kyoto Agreement and global warming have become among the most knife-edged shibboleths of the current culture wars

To complicate matters, global warming and its political surrogate (the Kyoto Accord) appear to have become aspects of bilateral differentiation between nations--distinguishing the moral, environmentally conscious, energy-conserving Kyoto cultists from the right wing, gun-toting yahoos and Kyoto-deniers epitomized by the United States. And Kyoto would be, if not easy, at least defensible if it were truly effective. Canada, for example, would certainly find Kyoto's provisions easier to achieve without economic pain if it had California's climate. Luxembourg might be less enthusiastic if it were 100 times larger. The United States might have found it more attractive if it had Saudi Arabia and Canada's combined energy resources to tap and only half its current population. Indeed, there are supportable extrapolations from the Kyoto Accord--those that would result in serious conservation, better R & D, and investment in engineering efficiencies directed at conserving nonrenewable resources for our economies.

In North America, for example, it will take the combined efforts of both Canada and the U.S. to conserve existing continental energy resources and develop alternative energies. Fighting over the intractably hard-to-prove "global warming" theories or over Kyoto generates gigantic political angst to little practical purpose. Rather than enshrining Kyoto shibboleths, governments should be seeking pragmatic problem-solving approaches. Global warming should not become another facet of culture wars.

No one wept when the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations. Somewhere in the distant future, the U.N. might in turn evolve into a more effective organization (let's say a global equivalent of the European Union). The League/U.N. are Kyoto/post-Kyoto analogues. The general, global United States effort to advance Kyoto alternatives driven by private industry efforts deserves more than the out-of-hand dismissiveness it has generally met. Specifically, in North America, the United States and Canada together have the wealth, weight, will, and technology to form something better than Kyoto--for their own sake but from which others could benefit.

Start by Understanding Our Limits of Understanding: Global Warming Science and Global Warming Theories Are Just That.

Global warming science is just an attempt using the best currently available computational and scientific information to support or refute existing theories. Newton and Einstein each had their refuting critics, and there is strong current debate on abstractions in astrophysics such as String Theory and Dark Matter. Darwin remains a theory still regardless of the views of evolution scientists or Biblical literalists in Kansas. In discussing global warming, we are at an interface between scientific theory and governmental action. We can indeed rush down the wrong path; in that regard, let us not forget what resulted from applying eugenics theories in the 1930s. Nor does long accepted theory assure accuracy (chemists still mutter "phlogiston" to those they believe bombastically self-assured and until August 2006 Pluto was a "planet.") Precise measurement does not imply accuracy.

Nor are scientists saints; indeed, they are as bureaucratic and self-seeking as any professional group. If the funding available is for global warming, then research proposals will be cast as applicable to global warming. If any mention of global warming or global...