Editorial: Warming not funny today

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.

Global warming has been fun for the past few decades. It has gotten a lot of laughs on late-night TV and talk-radio hosts have used it to gleefully paint environmentalists as kooks. This year, however, it hasn't been so much fun. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita raised a question in the minds of many people who never before gave the subject much thought. In Southern Nevada, it was harder to joke about global warming this past summer -- the hottest in recorded history.

So it was good timing last week for a conference in Las Vegas on climate change in the West. One participant took a poll among the approximately 50 people attending and did not find a single one who disputed that human activity is causing the Earth to become warmer. "Greenhouse" gases in the atmosphere are what make life on Earth possible; for millions of years they have slowed the rate at which the sun's heat escapes back into space, keeping the planet warm. Over the past century, with automobiles and manufacturing plants emitting unnaturally large amounts of greenhouse gases that collect in the atmosphere, too much of the sun's heat hasn't been able to escape, scientists say.

The effects of global warming include warmer surface water in the oceans. Storms use warmer water as fuel. The more fuel, the greater the ferocity of the storm, as seen in hurricanes such as Katrina and Rita. A rise of just a few degrees in the Earth's temperature can throw weather patterns into havoc, creating prolonged drought in some areas and speeding the frequency of severe flooding in others. One effect in Southern Nevada could be reduced snowfall in the Rocky Mountains, meaning less snowmelt for the Colorado River, resulting in water shortages for our growing population.

The purpose of the conference last week was to pair climatologists with water providers, which is why the Southern Nevada Water Authority was a co-sponsor. The local cooperation was heartening, especially given the example of President Bush, who refuses to cooperate internationally on climate protection. With no real dispute in the scientific world anymore that global warming is real, it is critical for water agencies to collaborate with climatologists and other scientists. Forewarned is forearmed.