On this day, September 13 1992, Roger Revelle’s daughter wrote an op-ed about the way her father, ailing, had been exploited by climate denialists. (see also Oreskes and Conway 2010, page 195)
Contrary to George Will’s “Al Gore’s Green Guilt” {op-ed, Sept. 3} Roger Revelle – our father and the “father” of the greenhouse effect – remained deeply concerned about global warming until his death in July 1991. That same year he wrote: “The scientific base for a greenhouse warming is too uncertain to justify drastic action at this time.” Will and other critics of Sen. Al Gore have seized these words to suggest that Revelle, who was also Gore’s professor and mentor, renounced his belief in global warming.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
http://uscentrist.org/platform/positions/environment/context-environment/john_coleman/carolyn-revelle-what-my-father-really-said
On this day the PPM was 353.01 Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.
Exactly two years after this was published, Australian climate scientist Graeme Pearman was trying to educate ALP politicians about the facts of life (on earth)
It’s quite possible that the turning point in the debate over one of the key environmental issues facing the Keating Government came on an early spring afternoon in the Cabinet room when the Minister for the Environment, Senator John Faulkner, wasn’t even there.
Over 90 minutes on September 13, a world renowned atmospheric scientist [Dr Graeme Pearman] gave a rare briefing to Cabinet ministers on the extent of the great environmental dilemma of our age – the greenhouse gas phenomenon.
McLean, L. 1994. D Day in Gas debate. The Australian, December 5, p. 20.
On this day the PPM was 355.86 Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
“Every disaster movie starts with a scientist being ignored.”
And when scientists tell the truth, they must either be traduced or ignored.
What happened next?
Pearman finally retired in 2004. He has tried to educate folks. Australian political (and economic) leaders largely just did not want to know. And here we are.