A Second Opinion on the Global Warming Issue

Abstract

　 The “physiology” of the global warming issue is still in progress, and not sufficient yet to be applied to regional/local-based environmental policies. Thus, the topics dealt in this review are as follows: 1) uncertainties associated with temperature measurements, 2) various radiative forcing components which affect regional/local climates, 3) climate sensitivity which determines the global mean temperature, 4) the causes of several abnormal weathers and climates, 5) policies based on vulnerability/resilience approaches. On the basis of these considerations, it is shown that wide-ranging viewpoints should be employed in forming the countermeasures for the global warming issue. For example, highly developed technologies for coal-fired power plants (of Japan, in particular) can be utilized to generate a Win-Win policy, where CO2 and colored aerosol (from China for instance) can be reduced at the same time; this will give a number of merits, which cannot be obtained by concentrating on only reducing CO2 emission.