President's Blog

At its Orlando meeting, the ASCE Board of Direction approved revisions to two policy statements. One is entitled, "Impacts of Global Climatic Change (Policy 360)," and the other is "Greenhouse Gases (Policy 488)." Both were existing policies, but underwent extensive revisions by the Energy Environmental and Water Policy Committee. They can be found in the government relations section of ASCE's Web site.

Global warming is controversial, not only in this country, but around the world. In 1997, the United Nations met in Kyoto, Japan and developed a policy for the nations of the world to cut carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to below 1999 levels. To date, all of the major countries have signed with the exception of Australia and the United States. The U.S. emits approximately 2.8 billion tons of CO₂ annually, the most of any nation, with China a close second at nearly 2.7 billion tons.

Former Vice President Al Gore just received the Nobel Prize for his work on global warming. The other recipient of the Nobel Prize went to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). There are many who firmly believe that unless we reduce our output of CO₂, and do other things to reduce global warming, these climatic changes will have dire consequences for humanity and our environment.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has held a series of hearings this year on climate legislation, the most noteworthy bill being, "America's Climate Security Act" sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. John Warner (R-VA). The bill could be reported to the Senate by early December. To read more about the Climate Security Act and to get the latest developments, visit ASCE's Government Relations Blog-Our Failing Infrastructure.

There are many others who do not believe that global warming is a result of human actions, but part of long-term climatic change. They also discount the potential negative effects on humans and the environmental consequences from global warming.  One such individual who was a member of the IPCC is John Christie, director of the Earth Systems Science Center at the University of Alabama. There are other noted individuals around the world who agree with Mr. Christie.

So what are we, the civil engineers of this world, to believe? Should ASCE have a policy that goes beyond our policy on greenhouse gases, which states that ASCE believes that Congress should adopt a policy that addresses the emission of greenhouse gases? Should ASCE be more definitive in addressing global warming or should ASCE not be engaged in this debate, but focus more on the impacts of potential global warming or global climatic change as does our Policy 360?