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Environment

Climate-change legislation

October 23, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 43

Sept. 18, page 16. Vitamin C was incorrectly identified as citric acid. It is ascorbic acid.

Oct. 9, page 12. The article on brain chemistry should have included the following reference information for the work cited: Science 2006, 314, 130.

Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-Calif.) Safe Climate Act proposes to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 oC, and Sen. James Jeffords (I-Vt.) has introduced similar legislation (C&EN, June 26, page 8).

While greenhouse gases may promote global warming, we must remember that our planet has gotten into and out of several ice ages with no human intervention whatsoever. New York's Finger Lakes, for example, are lasting proof of just how far south the glaciers once were. Preindustrial Greenland, on the other hand, was sufficiently warm to invite Viking settlers. Waxman and Jeffords may well be arguing with the sun itself, as solar activity plays a major role in Earth's climate. If so, their legislation will be about as effective as King Canute's legendary command that the tide should not come in.

Furthermore, given that places like China have no obligations whatsoever under the Kyoto treaty, expensive carbon dioxide regulations will not even get rid of the carbon dioxide, the CO2 will simply move offshore (along with the jobs that go with it). American chemists who enjoy their white-collar jobs and take pride in the high wages of their chemical-worker employees should remember that most forms of chemical manufacture are energy-intensive and that the chemical engineers who design those processes are already trained to make them as efficient as possible.

William A. Levinson
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

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