Thursday, October 2, 1997
Global warming spreads to UCLA
PRESIDENT: Clinton to address issue, requests feedback from
experts
By Mason Stockstill
Daily Bruin Contributor
As part of a White House conference on climate change, local
experts will convene Monday in Kerckhoff Hall to discuss the
regional impacts of global warming.
In preparation for a United Nations symposium that will be held
in Kyoto, Japan, in December, President Clinton called for the
conference on global warming issues, which will be based at the
White House.
Following the meeting in Washington, conferences will take place
at 30 college campuses throughout the country.
"President Clinton has said that this issue is one that is in
the hands of the students," said Calpirg State Board Chair Robin
Pendoley.
The proceedings from the separate meetings will be recorded and
formulated into a report, which will be presented to President
Clinton before he makes a decision regarding the United States’
position at the Kyoto conference.
"Students are in a very important position," Pendoley said.
Since the president will be considering the comments gathered
from these conferences in making U.S. policy, the conference could
strongly sway policy decisions throughout the world.
"The United States is the largest industrial country in the
world, and other countries often follow our lead," Pendoley
said.
"The feedback from the conferences could very well effect policy
throughout the world," he continued.
UCLA was chosen as a site for discussion because of the
university’s ongoing relationship with the federal government, said
EPA representative Jack Colburn.
"Whenever we need to hold something like this in Los Angeles,
UCLA is the place we look to first," Colburn said.
The conference, which will take place in the Charles E. Young
Grand Salon, includes a satellite downlink to the White House,
which will show excerpts from the conference held there earlier in
the day.
The local conference will be open to the public, including UCLA
students.
Chairing the panel will be Mary Nichols, a former EPA employee,
who now works for Environment Now, a local non-profit organization
designed to raise public awareness about environmental issues.
"This conference is very important for two reasons," she said,
"the first being that it will expand the number of people who are
aware of the issue, and the second being that it is important for
the (White House) administration to hear from the public on this
issue."
Global warming theory, the idea that increased production of
carbon dioxide is causing a worldwide trend of temperature
increase, has gained credence among scientists in recent years.
This prompted the United Nations to call for a worldwide
conference on the problem.
The United States has yet to take a stance on global warming
issues. The conference on Monday is intended to help the government
get up to speed on the issue so that the UN conference can be a
productive one.
Present at the Los Angeles conference will be Michael Ghil, a
professor of atmospheric sciences at UCLA and City of Los Angeles
representative Lillian Kawasaki.