On July 7, 1977, Frank Press wrote an interesting memo to Jimmy Carter, then President of the United States. The memorandum is titled “Release of Fossil CO2 and the Possibility of a Catastrophic Climate Change”.
Frank Press (1924-2020) was an American geophysicist, advisor to four U.S. presidents, member and president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and author of 160 scientific papers. Source: Wikipedia.
Putting into perspective, at that time, a few years after the Oil Crisis of 1973, global population was around 4 billion people, considering that the number now doubled to 8 billion people.
Back to the 1977 memorandum, it is quite a historical document.
And deserves translation to other languages. Below, 4 selected parts.
“Fossil fuel combustion has increased at an exponential rate over the past 100 years. As a result, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is now 12 percent above the pre-industrial revolution level and may grow to 1.5 to 2.0 times that level within 60 years. Because of the “greenhouse effect” of atmospheric CO2 the increased concentration will induce a global climatic warming of anywhere from 0.5° to 5° C.” …
“A rapid climatic change may result in large scale crop failures at a time when an increased world population taxes agriculture to the limits of productivity. The urgency of the problem derives from our inability to shift rapidly to non-fossil fuel sources once the climatic effects become evident not long after the year 2000; the situation could grow out of control before alternate energy sources and other remedial actions become effective” …
“As you know, this is not a new issue. What is new is the growing weight of scientific support which raises the CO2-climate impact from speculation to a serious hypothesis worthy of a responde that is neither complacent not panicky” …
“However, I believe that we must now take the potential CO2 hazard into account in developing our long-term energy strategy. Beyond conservation, we must be prepared to exploit nuclear energy more fully. As insurance against over-reliance on a nuclear energy economy, we should emphasise targeted basic research which could lead to breakthrough for solar electric, biomass conversion or other renewable energy sources.”
Below the full memo.
