The Nation - News from Feb. 2, 1989

A group of 21 senators introduced legislation intended to slow the destructive global warming trend through a $5-billion, three-year plan that includes energy conservation, curbs on pollutants and research. “The American Midwest could become a dust bowl and the Western, Southern and Eastern coasts could be devastated by floods,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), one of several senators to issue dire warnings about the consequences of the warming trend. Scientists believe industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases are accumulating in the atmosphere, trapping heat that otherwise would escape into space. This heat raises surface temperatures, which scientists believe could rise between 2 degrees and 7 degrees in the next 50 years.