Howe presents interviews with NOAA Administrator Dr. James Baker and NCAR climatologist Dr. Tom Wigley on accelerating global warming. Baker describes the unprecedented joint letter he co-signed with the UK Meteorological Office warning that warming trends are "undoubtedly real" and consistent with human-induced greenhouse effects. Wigley's computer projections show temperatures rising up to six degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, with heavier precipitation, stronger hurricanes, and shifting agricultural zones.
Linda reports that 40% of Arctic ice has melted in recent decades, a figure long classified because submarine measurements would have revealed naval positions. The conversation addresses the dilution of Atlantic currents, the ironic possibility of a cooler Europe amid global warming, and the political paralysis preventing action despite overwhelming scientific consensus.
Key Moments
Polar wind shift wrecks European storms: Linda Moulton Howe reports on AGU 2000 data showing 30-year shift of polar winds confining cold air to a smaller circle - explaining why warm midlatitude air is colliding with polar air to produce the savage storms that knocked down 300 million trees in France.
Past the political-rhetoric stage: NOAA chief Dr. James Baker and the UK Meteorological Office's Ewens have jointly signed a public letter declaring climate change beyond debate, while presidential candidates ignore it - and the media treats anyone discussing it as unqualified.
Arctic 40 percent melt and the conveyor: Dr. Baker confirms the December 1999 finding that 40 percent of Arctic ice has melted, diluting salt in currents and threatening the North Atlantic drift - which could plunge Europe into a little ice age even as the planet warms.
Natural-gas company buys warm-weather insurance: Howe reads a January 7, 2000 Waukegan News-Sun story revealing NICOR has bought the first-ever weather insurance policy that pays out if the year is more than 6.5 percent warmer than normal.
Arctic ice gone in 30 years: Howe tells Art that at the current rate of melt, all North Arctic ice could be gone in 30 years - replaced by open seawater - a transformation she calls extremely dramatic for ice that has stood for over 5,000 years.