Feet to the fire. (Updates).No fewer than seven state attorneys general are taking the Bush administration to federal court to force it to stop violating the Clean Air Act, particularly when it comes to global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. (see "Hot and Bothered," cover story, September/ October 2000). Attorney General Elliot Spitzer of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of is leading the charge. The problem, say the state officials, is unrestricted carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. (C02) emissions from coal-burning power plants. Bush has lifted a Clinton-era requirement that older coal plants update their environmental controls when undergoing modernization. Letting the plants off the hook, says Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, will lead to "more disease, health damage, weather extremes, droughts and floods." The power plant problem has also led to lawsuits from the Sierra Club Sierra Club, national organization in the United States dedicated to the preservation and expansion of the world's parks, wildlife, and wilderness areas. Founded (1892) in California by a group led by the Scottish-American conservationist John Muir, the Sierra Club and Our Children's Earth Foundation. Some cities have also sued federal agencies over their failure to act on global warming. President Bush rejected the international Kyoto Treaty as "too costly." CONTACT: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and , (828) 271-4800, www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html. |
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