CAMPUS AND AREA
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University Daily Kansan, October 19, 1983
Professors react warily to first warnings in EPA report on the 'greenhouse effect'
By Staff and Wire Reports
KU meteorology and ecology professors reacted cautiously yesterday to the government's first warning of the heat. Earth's steadily warming atmosphere.
An Environmental Protection Agency report finished last month said that the "greenhouse effect" would start change life on Earth in the next decade, and estimated that by the year 2100 the overall temperature of the Earth would be nine degrees Fahrenheit higher.
John Hoffman, head of strategic studies for the EPA, said, "Major changes will be here by the years 1990 and 2000 we have to learn how to live with them."
KU professors, none of whom had read the report, agreed that if the report's predictions on temperature were accurate, people had reason for concern.
"That is pretty serious, if that is an accurate prediction," Jerry DoNoy-
elles, professor of systems and ecology, said.
BUT HE SAID that predicting such temperature changes accurately was difficult.
"We don't even know how the temperature of the Earth changes naturally." he said.
The report, written by Stephen Seidel, an EPA employee, and Dale Keyes, an EPA consultant, is the first official government warning that the world would suffer the consequences of houseboat effect sooner than expected.
the greenhouse effect results in higher temperatures on Earth caused by increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide lets the sunlight that heats Earth enter the atmosphere, but inhibits heat radiation's escape into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the main source of carbon dioxide.
THE REPORT SAID that "If climate models prove accurate, changes in world climate are likely to occur at an unprecedented rate. All human activities are likely to be in some way affected. Farming, transportation, coastal habitation, and the provision of water supplies are the most obvious."
If the report's predictions prove accurate, the warmer weather will raise ocean water levels by melting part of the polar ice caps, and will disrupt precipitation and storm patterns.
Gary McGrath, a teaching assistant with the environmental studies program, said, "We should surely be worried about the greenhouse effect."
Individuals can put their "drop in the bucket" by reducing electricity use, he
"Anytime you use a blowdryer, or an electric can-opener, you are basically burning coal," he said.
said. Lawrence electricity is produced from burning coal.
BUT PEOPLE ARE not very likely to conserve energy as long as electricity prices remain low, he said.
Glen Marotz, professor of geography and meteorology, agreed that the problem was complex and solutions difficult to implement because developed on the burning of fossil fuels for their industrial development.
"You are essentially telling someone, 'Don't develop your country.' That is an impossibility,' he said. "We've never told them that the good of human-kind as a group."
And solutions within the United States are also difficult to find because most people either can't or won't sacrifice their way of life, he said.
The report said that the warming trend of the Earth's climate because of the greenhouse effect was both imminent and inevitable.
Students join anchors with nightly newscast
By CHRISTY FISHER Staff Reporter
Tonight the choice in news will be a little different.
Not only will the audience be able to choose among the regular nightly newscasts of Brokaw, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, they could also watch KU students Melissa Oatman and Devin Scillian present the news.
"Fifteen Minutes," a news program written and produced by students in two Radio-Television Film classes, will make its 1983 debut at 6:15 tonight on Channel 6, Lawrence Sunflower Cablevision.
Oatman, Wichita senior and Scillian, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, junior will be co-anchors of the show which will be videotaped at Jollife Hall.
"Fifteen Minutes" will feature local news reports and videotaped stories focusing on the events affecting Lawrence.
GEORGE RASMUSSEN, assistant professor of journalism and executive producer for the project, said that he did not expect the show to be a blockbuster in the catalogs, said that he did not intend it to be.
Instead, the show was created to give the anchors and the students in Broadcast News II and Television News I a platform of creating of creating their own program.
He said the program was invaluable because learning by doing was the best teacher.
"You can talk until you’re blue in the face about errors, but when a student sees it, they understand what is talking about. Ras müssen said.
Oatman and Seillian will share their Wednesday night anchoring duties this semester with Kristin Anderson, Hutchinson, junior, and Michael Smith, Virginia Beach, Va. senior. Leon Liebli, Lawrence senior, will prepare sports news.
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