ABSTRACT
Global warming has been on the radar for policy planners
for some time. Empirical data on anthropogenic climate change
were available as early as the 1930s, and various scientific advisory boards drew the potential problem to the attention of US
presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.
The remoteness of the threat and uncertainty as to its likeliness
and severity relegated it to the back burner,3 but over the last few
years it has acquired a sense of urgency. Some identify 2004 as
