Climate issues heat up

Utah summit on global warming draws 45 U.S. mayors, Gore

Throughout Europe global warming is a huge concern.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has described global warming as "probably the most serious threat we face" � although he might amend that statement after last week's terrorist bombings in London.

In the United States, it's a different story. Even the most passionate climate change advocates often admit they see Americans' eyes glaze over when the conversation turns to a hotter Earth.

But there is some evidence of a rising interest in global warming in the states — an interest that advocates hope will bring a new commitment to combat the problem.

Much of that interest will be evident in Utah this week, as 45 mayors from major cities across the nation, including Seattle, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Honolulu, Washington, D.C., and Anchorage, and former Vice President Al Gore descend on Utah's capital to talk climate change.

It's a large, powerful audience brought together for the "Sundance Summit" by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, movie star and director Robert Redford and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI.) The summit runs today through Tuesday and will largely be held at Redford's secluded Sundance Resort, tucked away in Provo Canyon.

Such a summit might be commonplace in Europe, but in the United States this grass-roots meeting of local politicians is rather rare.

"The onus lies on organizations like ICLEI, state leaders and federal leaders to continue to drive the imperative that global warming is happening and we simply need to address it collectively," said Michelle Wyman, executive director of ICLEI U.S.

And despite the collective interest, local leaders in the United States do have a tough row to hoe, dealing with a generally disinterested public and a federal administration that has been widely criticized for a lack of commitment and its refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

There are signs, however, that President Bush is warming to the problem. At the recent G-8 summit in Scotland, Bush said: "Listen, I recognize that the surface of the Earth is warmer, and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem."

He said he hoped industrialized nations could "work together to share technologies, to control greenhouse gases as well as possible."

The American public may still need some convincing.

The Gallup Poll has consistently found widespread ambivalence toward global warming among Americans.

In a 2003 poll, global warming ranked ninth out of 10 possibilities among environmental concerns that worried Americans. A year later, global warming was again ninth out of 10 choices. Both years, global warming barely finishing ahead of acid rain and well behind concerns such as water pollution and soil contamination.

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