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Scientists have accused the US Congress of ignoring solid data on climate change, wasting precious time that should be used to counter the effects of human-generated greenhouse gases.

The group of 57 scientists from 24 states, organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), told a press conference this week that the effects of global climate change could be severe for the United States.

They urged Congress to adopt policies to improve energy efficiency and encourage the use of renewable energy. They said Congress should not be distracted by the “contrarian” views of a handful of scientists who dispute what they described as a mainstream scientific consensus on climate change.

“The mainstream scientific community's voices aren't being heard in Congress,” says congressman Rush Holt (Democrat, New Jersey), the former director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, who took part in the press conference. “It doesn't make sense to say we need to give equal time to the one or two per cent of scientists who are saying something totally different from the scientific consensus.”

The production and consumption of energy is “the number one insult to our globe”, says Holt. “[But] I don't think one member out of 50 in Congress would think of it that way.” People find it hard to grasp the urgency of an issue mainly reported in complex statistical formats, he says.

Patrick Michaels, of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, challenges the UCS view. “The bottom line is that the climate models that served as the basis for most of this concern were wrong,” says Michaels. “The planet will warm, but not as much as it was feared.” He says that government efforts to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency are not needed in a market system in which they will evolve anyway. “Doing very little about this is the best way to solve the problem.”

Michaels' views are typical of “minority viewpoints that haven't been adequately peer-reviewed” and that confuse Congress, says Walter Oechel, a professor of biology and director of the Global Change Research Group at San Diego State University. Oechel contributed to the 1995 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored group of 2,500 scientists who found that human activity was raising atmospheric temperatures.

Last November, the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol, stating a commitment to reduce carbon emissions to seven per cent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. But President Bill Clinton has not submitted the treaty to the Senate for ratification. He says he first wants assurances of meaningful participation from key developing countries such as China and India, and negotiations to be concluded on provisions for emissions trading. These are not expected to be complete until 2001.