Top British Scientist Calls Global Warming Bigger Threat Than Terrorism
Which menacing global problem should be keeping you up at night: terrorism or climate change? Britain’s top government scientist is creating a bit of a stir by arguing that it’s the latter, and lambasting President Bush for having his priorities all out of whack. In an article in today’s issue of the U.S. journal Science, David King, chief scientific advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, castigates the U.S. for refusing to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, noting that although the country is home to only 4 percent of the world’s people, it pumps out 20 percent of the world’s heat-trapping gases. “The United States is already in the forefront of the science and technology of global change, and the next step is surely to tackle emissions control too,” King writes. “We in the rest of the world are now looking to the U.S. to play its leading part.”
