On this day, December 3 in 1972, some climate scientists wrote a “give us money to study climate” letter to President Nixon.
“After the conference the conference organizers, (the late G. J. Kukla and R. K. Mathews) wrote to President Nixon (December 3, 1972) calling for federal action on possible climate change. At that time, with no consensus on climate change, their letter was an important impetus to expanding research. The letter noted that the “main conclusion of the meeting was that a global deterioration of climate, by order of magnitude larger than any hitherto experience by civilized mankind, is a very real possibility and indeed may be due very soon.” On the question of “artificial heating” of the atmosphere, as opposed to orbital changes for ice ages, the letter concluded that “knowledge necessary for understanding the mechanism of climate change is lamentably inadequate and the ultimate causes remain unknown” (Kukla and Mitchell, 1972) [4]
Hecht, A. 2014, Past, Present and Future: Urgency of Dealing with Climate Change. Atmospheric and Climate Sciences
Vol.04 No.05
[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 327ppm. At time of writing it was 419ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]
The context was this –
Everyone knew there’d be new money for this sort of science, and wanted a piece of the action. Not to be cynical or anything.
Why this matters.
Kulka and Mitchell were wrong. We need to remember that there isn’t this “straight narrow line” from ignorance to knowledge. The real world is messy af.
What happened next?
Iirc, they got some dosh, but within a couple of years it became obvious they were wrong