CO2 Newsletter Vol. 2, no.5 – “A 1 degree C warming is generally expected to be reached shortly after the turn of the century if the CO2 buildup continues as in the past”

The 11th edition of the CO2 Newsletter, (Vol. 2, no. 5) 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 CO2 Newsletter Vol. 2, no. 5.

The eight page issue has a front page story that is a typical wrist-slasher – “Arctic Warming Resembles the 1930s.”

In his editorial, explaining that he had had dealings with a physicist who seemed not to “get” the basics, Barbat argues that

The goal of the CO₂ Newsletter has been to bridge this communications chasm on CO₂  between scientists, political leaders and the energy industry without sacrificing too much time from our income-producing business. (We regret the one-month slippage this issue due to the press of business.)

Also of note is the fact that the Geophysics Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton were reading the Newsletter –

Models and Analogs Agree: Warming Makes Wider Dry Belts

The scientific group of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton cite two recent reports of theirs to correct an inaccurate and misleading statement of ours on the editorial page of the previous issue of this newsletter, namely: “If greater warming has resulted in ever widening desert belts (based on studies of all the warm climates of the geologic past), this differs from the model results which infer that continued warming may cause an overall increase in precipitation.”

The Newsletter contains the usual mix of excerpts from recent reports –

From ‘Adaptation to Global Environmental Change’ by Karl W. Butzer, published in Professional Geographer, volume 32, number 3, pages 269-278 (1980): 8

From “Climate Impact of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide”, by J. Hansen, D. Johnson, A. Lacia, S. Ledeoff, P. Lee, D. Rind, and G. Ruscell, SCIENCE 28 August 1981, 12

From ‘Comments on “Aerosol Cloud Reflectivity and Climate” ’, by William W. Kellogg, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, volume 38, 13

From ‘Reply’, by Thomas P. Charlock and William D. Sellers: 15

From ‘Global Energy Futures and the Carbon Dioxide Problem’, Council on Environmental Quality (Gus Speth, Chairman, January 13, 1981). 15

From ‘The Albedo Effect’, advertisement by General Motors Corporation in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (July 1981) and other popularized science magazines: 19

From ‘Recent glacier variations and volcanic eruptions’, by Stephen C. Porter, NATURE 14 May 1981: 20

From “Biological export of shelf carbon is a sink of the global CO2 cycle’, by John J. Walsh, Gilbert T Rowe, Richard L. Iverson & C. Peter McRoy, NATURE 21 May 1981: 20

From ‘Historical Nile Floods and Their Implications for Climatic Change’, by Fekri A. Hassan, SCIENCE 5 June 1981: 21

From ‘CO2: Proceed with caution’, by Frank Barnaby, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 1981:

and closes out with an essay from Barbat.

“Inflation Disrupts the Capital Marketplace”

which begins “The option of converting from fossil fuels to nuclear energy to halt the CO₂ buildup has been strongly opposed by some writers as being far more costly than the option of reducing energy usage and supplanting fossil fuels solely with solar, wind and biomass.”