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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1993)
Opinion Page 6 The Battalion Friday, April 23,1993 The Battalion Editorial Board The Battalion / ? Steve O'Brien, editor in chief A— Jason Loughman, managing editor Kyle Burnett, news editor Todd Stone, city editor Dave Thomas, news editor Stacy Feducia, opinion page editor Don Norwood, sports editor 100 years at Susan Owen, lifestyles editor Darrin Hill, photo editor Texas A&M Editorial Stop the slaughter Time to take action in Bosnia Yesterday marked the opening of the United States Holocaust Memo rial Museum in the nation's capitol, and by all accounts it was a water shed day in the recognition of hu man rights around the world. However, the world is faced to day with another moral crisis in Europe as Serbians continue to practice "ethnic cleansing" in the Republics that make up the former Yugoslavia. It is unbelievable that less than 50 years after the most hated despot in the history of civilization systematically murdered more than 6 million innocent men, women and children that the free world would stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. But unlike the situation faced by Franklin Roosevelt in 1943, Presi dent Clinton has the military power at his disposal to end genocide in Bosnia-Hercegovina soon. Furthermore, the President has the moral authority as leader of the civilized world to end the conflict. Clinton promised during his campaign for the presidency that he would end the conflict with force if necessary, but he has since backed off of that stance while thousands more Muslims and other ethnics that are found unworthy have perished. War might not be the only solu tion to the problems in what was Yugoslavia, but diplomatic propos als have been a failure to this point, and the oppressed citizens of Bosnia do not have the power to defend themselves from the Ser bians. If the Serbians are allowed to practice so-called cleansing in the world today, what will be allowed to occur in the years ahead? Diplomatic solutions to the prob lem thus far have smacked of Chamberlainesque appeasement, which was a failure in the 1930s and will be a failure in the 1990s. The former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, has chastised world leaders in re cent weeks for allowing Serbian atrocities to continue unabated without efforts to stop them. The President should not unilat erally escalate the conflict in Bosnia-Hercegovina. He must con sult with Congress and other world leaders before making a move that would surely sacrifice lives for free dom and justice. Survivors of the holocaust have promised never to forget what hap pened to them in the darkest hours of World War II, but remembrances of atrocities past should not cloud our vision to what is happening in our present. With few avenues left open for a peaceful end to human rights viola tions, it is apparent that force must be the course of action for the world to take. Global warning: Don't cry wolf Environmental apocalypse now, not necessarily true T here was something disturbing about CBS's two-part eco-disas- ter miniseries, "The Fire Next Time," which aired Sunday and Tues day, just in time for Earth Day festivi ties this week. The movie, set in 2017, follows the travails of a family on a dying world in the throws of global warming, ozone holes and food shortages. What disturbs is the ideological na ture of the film, which presents a piece of fiction as the future of the earth if we don't heed the call of apocalyptic environmentalists. Knowing how fallacious it is to make a single member of a group stand for the group as a whole, I would like to emphasize that there are legitimate environmental concerns and re sponsible scientists. However, Dr. Stephen Schneider, who was consulted for the movie and had a cameo appearance, sacrifices scientific realism for environmental activism. The movie begins with an advisory that it's "for our grandchildren." Schneider pulls off an amazing ex ante "I told you so" in his cameo, where he claims that the global warming apocalypse could have been averted if the world had "taken action in time ... In 1992, the world met in Brazil, but nothing was done." Here, Schneider refers to the Rio Earth Summit. Schneider, who previously predicted a coming ice age in 1976, said, "We have to offer up scary scenarios, make sim plified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest." It appears "The Fire Next Time" lives up to the "effective" side of Schneider's moral universe. Global warming remains debatable. When temperatures fell between 1938 and 1970, some scientists, including Schneider, forecast an ice age in the near future. After the 1970s, a warming trend has developed. The lesson to be learned here is not to pick a short time period of data from which to extrapolate far into the future: You might be pick ing up a fluctuation and not a long term trend. Presently, no consensus exists among climate scientists regarding global warming. A 1991 poll of 400 American Meteorological Society and American Geophysical Union members found that only 19 percent thought that human- induced global warming has occurred, and for good rea son. Despite the strong theoretical basis for global warming — the addition of green house gases (GHGs), such as methane, carbon dioxide or water vapor, to an environ ment increases temperatures — most of the last century's warming occurred before major increases in human pro duced GHGs before 1940. The last 50 years show no appre ciable net warming, which is striking given the amount of GHGs released. Currently, the most sophisticated global climate models (GCMs) are a factor of three over the global warming that has occurred in the last 100 years. Only recently have GCMs begun to incorporate the ocean, which represents 73 percent of the earth's surface. The interaction and feed back between the ocean, biosphere and atmosphere remain very uncertain. Further complicating matters, Danish me teorologists recently showed that average temperature and the sun spot cycles are closely correlated. If global warming does occur, Schneider's apocalyptic vision does not necessarily follow. When a United Nations affiliate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, calculated the effects of doubling carbon dioxide with a subsequent increase of temperature of two degrees centi grade, they found that U.S. food production would in crease by 15 percent, about $2 billion a year in value; U.S. water resources would rise nine percent, or about $30 to $50 in value; and U.S. forests would increase by about ten percent, about $500 billion in value. The increase in tem perature would cause a 20 inch increase in sea level, de stroying and damaging shore lines with a cost of $25 bil lion. Comparable net benefits like this one were calculated for China, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union and South America. Obviously, the scientific jury is still out on whether hu man-induced global warming is occurring, and if it is, what the costs and benefits would be. What I fear is how global warming is becoming an article of faith among envi ronmentalists. If you don't accept global warming as a foregone con clusion with destructive consequences, then you obviously cannot be truly concerned with the environment. Schnei der may well oe sowing the seeds of his own destruction. Cry wolf too often, and soon no one will listen. Dickerson is an aging sophomore economics major. APRIL 23 VIPs give thumbs up to Whoopstock Fest • Greetings. It is my pleasure to ex tend my support for Unity Fest 1993, pro moting unity at Texas A&M University. We have made much progress toward ending racism in our state and nation, but we still have a long way to go. Events like this one remind us how im portant it is to continue that struggle and to join together in opposition to intoler ance, violence and hatred. I thank you all for your support of this program. Best wishes. Sincerely, Gov. Ann Richards • Dear Members of the University Community: Congratulations to our student organi zations, Department of Multicultural Ser vices and staff for organizing Saturday's "Whoopstock-Unity Festival '93." I re gret that I have to be out of the country and cannot join you. In this era of rapidly increasing diver sity domestically, and increasing interde pendence globally, Texas A&M Universi ty and our community have the opportu nity to embrace and celebrate diversity, to champion tolerance and understanding and to be positive role models for any in dividual or group advocating divisive ness, separateness, intolerance and lack of respect for the traditions and cultures of others. I trust that Saturday's "Whoopstock" will serve to reaffirm our individual and collective commitment to the quest for mutual understanding, mutual respect and friendship, today and everyday. I encourage you to participate in the Whoopstock-Unity Festival '93 and to ig nore the Ku Klux Klan rally in College Station. Thank you for being here and have a great day. Sincerely, William H. Mobley Texas A&M a cultural mecca for cartoons I was delighted by the anonymous ed itorial cartoon last week which featured a parody of a dollar bill. It took a few min utes to decipher the fractured Latin as an attempt at "that they may have taxes and have them more abundantly." Such so phisticated humor clearly demonstrates that culture lives at our spiring Harvard- on-the-Brazos! Walter C. Daugherity Department of Computer Science Editor's Note: Cartoonist George Nasr was responsible for that cartoon. Stay way far away from the KKK In response to the letters written on April 21 under "KKK rally sparks quest for alternatives," I believe the best way to protest the Klan rally is not to protest. The KKK wishes to provoke a re sponse in the community, either for or against them, in hopes of getting exten sive media coverage and publicity. If no one is out listening to them or protesting against them, they will have no way of provoking a response and their purpose will be defeated. Let's not give the KKK the satisfaction of giving them what they want. Don't go to the KKK rally, and don't go to rallies protesting against them. Just ignore them and their reason to exist will be eliminated. Mike Robertson Class of'96 Reader apologizes for misunderstood mail Please let me start off by apologizing for the letter that was printed in yester day's Mail Call. I am very sorry for of fending anyone especially the members of the Corps. That was not my intent. We just wanted everyone to under stand that non-regs respect and uphold all Texas A&M traditions also. I was wrong to tell the Corps to march down Highway 6. I realize without the Corps this University would change drastically. The Corps does uphold and maintain the majority of the traditions at Texas A&M, and I just hope we can all be joined to gether as Aggies to carry these traditions on together. Again, I apologize to everyone espe cially the members of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. Shannon Maher Class of '95 Editor's Note: Mail Call is a forum for the open exchange of reader opinion. On Thursday, a reader wrote a letter express ing her opinion that the Corps of Cadets represents a minority of Aggies and that the contributions of non-regs should not be ignored. Today, she apologized. The Opinion Page generally does not allow readers to recant their positions once their original opinions have been aired in Mail Call. In this instance, we felt that we should bend that policy due to the fact that the reader said that she has received several death threats and has been plagued by harassing phone calls concerning her po sition. If you have a complaint about a read er's opinion, address it to the Battalion Opinion Page, address it to Mail Call, or address it to me. Let's not get personal here. Stacy Feducia Opinion Page Editor EditorioU appearing m The Battaion reflect the views of the editorial board They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Baltater staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, odmnistratian faculty or staff. Cofumns. guest columns, and Mail Call items express the opinions of the authors. The Battaion encourages letters to the editor and wil print as many « space alows n the Mail Cal section. Letters must be 300 wards or less and mdude the author's name, cbss, and phone number. Due to space restnchons, guest columns wl not be accepted unless th* author contacts the opmon page for prior approval before submitting columns. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters should be addressed to; The Battalion - Med Cal 013 Reed McDonald /Mcri stop 1111 * Texas A&M University College Station. TX 77843
