Tuesday, April 18, 2000

Global warming heats up weather talk on PBS program

Everybody talks about the weather, the old saying goes. But nobody does anything about it.
   Or do they? On tonight's "Nova/Frontline," the breezily titled "What's Up With the Weather?" (8 p.m., PBS), a lot of scientists and environmental experts argue seriously about what the weather, or more precisely the climate, is doing to us and what we as fossil-fuel-sucking consumers are doing to it.
   The two-hour program, produced by PBS' two most esteemed and awarded documentary series, sounds the sirens on the topic of global warming, taking an in-depth look into how humans are contributing, or not, to changes in the planet's climate.
   Global warming has become one of the stormiest, most politicized issues of the 21st century thus far. One side blames humans and our rampant use of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution for the earth's increase, by one degree Fahrenheit, in surface temperature over the last 100 years. The other side says the so-called "greenhouse gases," carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, that are trapped by air pollution and hold more of the sun's heat near the earth, are a natural phenomenon that will actually benefit the planet by producing bigger and better vegetation.
   Who's right?
   The answer is stickier than Corpus in July.
   Fire or ice?
   Nobody knows, say the experts interviewed on the program. Scientists on both sides of the debate have studied evidence from the measurement of coral reefs, icebergs, trees and the air to determine what effect global warming might have had in the past and might have on the future of life on the planet. They've built sophisticated computer models to predict various climatic scenarios, such as the melting of the polar icecaps or the rise of tides that could flood coastal regions worldwide. They've tried to figure out how even the slightest variations in climate could lead to intense storms, famines, droughts, the spread of diseases such as cholera and the extinction of delicate habitats and species.
   And still, they don't know if we're headed for worldwide heatwaves or a new ice age.
   With a minimum of scientific gobbledygook, "What's Up With the Weather?" presents some fascinating research into all this. Some of the info hits close to home. Did you know that just making a daily piece of toast uses enough energy to throw 20 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere in a year? That the average SUV emits double its weight in carbon compounds in a year? And that using aerosols actually has a cooling effect because the sulfates reflect incoming sunlight?
   No agreement
   The "Nova/Frontline" scientists can't seem to agree whether all the toast-making, SUV-driving and aerosol-shpritzing is worse for the environment than, say, active volcanoes randomly spewing ash into the atmosphere or El Nino creating warmer ocean water that bubbles out dissolved CO2, which leads to more water vapor, which is itself a greenhouse gas.
   "What's Up" concludes with a look at the possibilities of renewable energies such as wind and solar power, as well as developing technologies that will phase out fossil fuels.
   But the question of whether 50 years from now we'll be sweating in February or freezing in August remains up in the air.
   "There comes a point when you can't escape the idea that you're having serious climatic consequences," says Richard Somerville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "The issue becomes one of whether we get wise or whether we have to wait for some perhaps quite unanticipated climate surprise that wakes us all up."
   Think about that next time the toast pops up.
   Local winner on 'Price'
   For Corpus Christi resident Gus Reyes, 71, a recent vacation to Los Angeles paid off with nearly $5,000 worth of game show prizes.
   Reyes, a retired law enforcement officer, became a contestant on the CBS game show "The Price Is Right" when he was plucked from the audience at a March 28 taping. The episode airs at 10 a.m. Thursday on CBS affiliate KZTV.
   Reyes said he and wife Gloria went to California to see friends and sightsee. Gloria had written in advance for tickets to the show and when they got eight, they rounded up six friends and decided to print up T-shirts for the group sporting the slogan "Oldies but goodies from Texas."
   "We made quite a spectacle," said Reyes.
   Winning a price-matching game, Reyes went home with a camcorder, grandfather clock and daybed.
   And what did he think of "Price" prince Bob Barker? Reyes said the show's silver-haired host is "a fantastic man just like you see on TV."
  
  
  

 
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