At 1:15 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 26, I was about to retire when I ran across a program on Channel 10 devoted to global warming. Styled a "debate," it featured several of Japan's leading authorities on both sides of the issue, but by the time I headed for bed at 2:30 a.m., the discussion had progressed no further than bickering over the effects of CO2 greenhouse gases.
Indeed, no one had so much as mentioned our planet's rampant deforestation -- trees being the only effective means of absorbing these gases. If this is the state of Japanese awareness on the issue, and if the vast majority of scientists studying the issue are right, by the time Japan begins to take action, we'll all be fishing in Ginza.
DONALD WALKER