Thirty five years ago, on this day, January 6th, 1989, an article with the snappy title Cloud-Radiative Forcing and Climate: Results from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment was published. Its lead author was V. Ramanathan.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 353ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was
The starting gun for *public* concern about climate change had been fired a few months before (June 1988), thanks to both James Hansen’s testimony to a Senate committee in Washington DC, a very hot summer, and other events (including statements by senior politicians such as George HW Bush and Margaret Thatcher). Ramanthan’s work on the effect of all the other trace gases on estimated temperature rise had been one factor in making the Villach meeting of 1985 what it was.
What I think we can learn from this
That smart people have been scratching their heads/worrying about the earth’s radiation budget and imbalance for a long long time.
What happened next
Scientists kept sciencing, and the emissions kept climbing.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
References
V. Ramanathan R. D. Cess, E. F. Harrison, P. Minnis, B. R. Barkstrom, E. Ahmad and D. Hartmann 1989. Cloud-Radiative Forcing and Climate: Results from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment Science Vol. 243, No. 4887 (Jan. 6, 1989), pp. 57-63
Also on this day: