The first edition of the CO2 Newsletter, published bi-monthly by American geologist William N. Barbat between 1979 and 1982 is live!
You can download a pdf and see the full text here.
Barbat had switched on to environmental problems over a decade earlier, including carbon dioxide build-up. In 1979 he started the Newsletter. It was intended to fill a
“communications gap by capsulizing both the published and unpublished reports on the CO2 problem which are deemed important. This newsletter will also publish original material. invited articles. and letters of inquiry, fact and opinion.”
Each 8 page Newsletter had a lead story, an editorial, excerpts of recent documents (reports, newspaper articles, scientific abstracts, testimony by scientists to Congressional hearings) and deeply researched and argued articles by Barbat about a range of issues. Most issues had feedback from readers.
The 18 Newsletters are heart-breaking and enraging because it is clear that by the late 1970s many scientists knew what was coming, but they – and Barbat – were not able to get enough other people to take it seriously (sound familiar?)
I will be releasing the Newsletters on roughly 3 week cycles through the year, and also blogging about specific aspects of each newsletter between these release dates.
Please give me feedback, even if it is merely typos you’ve found in the html versions of the pdfs
Finally, a thank you to the member of the late William N. Barbat’s family who very kindly supplied copies of the Newsletter, their time to answer questions and also permission for these wonderful (and, again, heart-breaking) documents to be shared.