The sixth 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.
The eight page issue has a front page story asking “Can CO2-induced warming be detected yet?” Barbat does a good job (as ever) in being fair and balanced. At one point he notes
“Madden and Ramanthan theorized that a CO2-induced warming may have been delayed a decade by ocean thermal inertia or has been compensated by a cooling due to other factors. They noted, however, that “uncertainties remain because our current knowledge of climate does not allow us to distinguish between changes due to CO2 and those not to CO2. In order to prove or disprove the existence of the theoretically predicted effects of increasing levels of CO2, it may be necessary to monitor several variables and formulate arguments based on physical as well as statistical grounds to minimize the effect of the many uncertainties involved.”
There’s also an editorial, (highlighting the April 1980 Senate hearings) feedback from readers, excerpts from recent reports and a concluding article “A need for rational answers about energy.”
It remains heart-breaking, of course. Barbat’s editorial begins
“The hearings of April 3, 1980, before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the Effects of Carbon Dioxide Buildup in the Atmosphere represent a step forward in introducing the CO2 problem into U.S. energy policy. Prominent scientists familiar with the CO2 problem were asked “what we politicians and Congress need to do” by Senator Dale Bumpers. Senator Paul E, Tsongas noted that “Current U.S. energy policy has long-term implications, and what we are going to have to figure out is how bad will those impacts be.”
In a day or two, another excellent commentary on the newsletter will be published. Also, I will do a better job of highlighting the individual articles/nuggets in the issue over the coming weeks, before Vol. 2, no. 1 is published.
As ever, if you have comments, suggestions, memories of reading the Newsletter when it was first published, do get in touch.