It looks like it's going to be difficult to get rid of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions. This week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommended taking down the Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River to allow migratory fish to reach their historic spawning grounds upriver. As reported in the current issue of Science, several other dams are slated to be removed, and there are 1,600 non-federal power dams altogether. We don't suppose that they will build another nuclear plant to replace the electricity lost, so what's left? Aside from the waste of money and resources (which translates into energy) used in building the dam, there are these 7,000 pages of comments, which FERC had to study before concluding its final Environmental Impact Statement. Sort of makes you wonder whether the original EIS paid any attention to the fish problem.

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, together with the Environmental Defense Fund, has developed an interactive exhibit, now showing in Washington DC. "Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast" demonstrates some of the alleged impacts of global warming and sea level rise. Quoting from the brochure: "In the exhibit of Washington DC, you can simulate an ocean storm surge powerful enough to flood the grounds of the U.S. Capitol". We assume that all these kids are then supposed to call their Congressmen and Senators and warn them of what's ahead, so they'll vote for a Climate Treaty that curtails energy use. Of course, if the exhibit were not so one-sided, it would have presented the evidence that shows sea levels dropping if the climate were to warm. [Increased evaporation transfers water from the oceans to the polar ice sheets]

A leading promoter of global warming hype is Dr. Klaus Hasselmann, who works on climate models in Hamburg, Germany. Writing in Die Zeit, a leading German periodical, he admits that scientists exaggerate the significance of their research areas in order to get more research money. Perhaps that's why he pays no attention whatsoever to observations from weather satellites that show a cooling of global climate—-in direct contradiction to his model results. Dr. Hasselmann, who likes to refer to his scientific critics as "idiots", offered to bet a considerable sum of money that climate will warm by as much as 1°C within 20 years. He made this offer in November 1994 when testifying to the German Bundestag as a climate expert. We are willing to take any reasonable bet at any time. How about it, Dr. Hasselmann, will you put your money where your mouth is?