Robert T. Watson

In the following viewpoint, Robert T. Watson claims that the overwhelming majority of scientific experts believe that human activity is causing global warming through the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Watson maintains that the global warming trend recorded throughout the twentieth century is extreme and atypical, particularly when contrasted with earth’s relatively stable climate during the past ten thousand years. Human-induced global warming will put more stress on ecological and economic systems already adversely affected by pollution and poor management, in the author’s opinion. Watson is chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme to evaluate the science of climate change.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What should government decision-makers realize about carbon dioxide, according to the author?
2. What evidence...