Opinion
Page 6
The Battalion
Friday, April 23,1993
The Battalion Editorial Board
The Battalion
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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
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