Greenhouse Gas

As a piece of politics, the issue of "climate change," the potential warming of the atmosphere by man-made pollution, is about as appealing as the old tar baby in a briar patch. Politicians like to give voters a benefit now and the tab later. But climate change policy requires sacrifice now for a benefit - and an undefined benefit at that - decades away. If the scientific analysis is correct, in another 100 years the average global temperature will have risen between 2 and 6 degrees Fahrenheit.

FUNNY FOR MONEY: People laugh when you wear a lampshade on your head at parties, so why not make comedy your career? Here's some advice from the pros at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival on how it's done: It takes more than one 30-minute routine to become a comedian. If that's all you have, don't quit your day job. Try it out in a part-time way. Watch other comics - not just for what you should do, but what you shouldn't. Come up with your own opinions about everything - from blades of grass to the Middle East.

NO DEPOSIT, BUT BOTTLE DOES NET A SURPRISING RETURN Geoff Hight and his elementary school classmates in Portland, Maine, discovered that a bottle carrying a message really could cross the Atlantic Ocean when they received a letter back from a 13-year-old French girl. Amelie Kriskovic wrote to Geoff that she had found his bottle while walking with her father on the beach near their home in Pornichet, France, the Portland Press Herald reported yesterday. Geoff was among 21 fourth-grade students who sealed messages in wine bottles in the spring of 1992 and had them released off Portland by a fisherman in an experiment to learn more about the ocean and the Gulf Stream.

The United States emitted more "greenhouse gases" last year than ever before, complicating the Clinton administration's voluntary program to cut back on the emissions that threaten to damage the Earth's climate. Almost 1,400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, were released into the atmosphere in 1993, according to the federal Department of Energy. That represented a jump of about 2.5 percent over 1992. "That is the largest amount ever and the first jump since 1990," said Howard Geller, executive director of the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The Bush administration's attempt to avert quick action to stem global warming appeared to backfire yesterday when members of an international conference angrily rejected a White House statement stressing caution and more study. "There was a substantial uproar here," said Rafe Pomerance, a researcher for the World Resources Institute, a think tank. "It was close to disaster. I don't think (the administration officials) succeeded in convincing anyone of their point of view. They got rolled.