1972 The Club of Rome publishes Limits to Growth, a report that predicts that if current growth trends continue unchanged, the limits to growth on the planet will be reached within the next 100 years. The report Limits to Growth, making unprecedented use of computer modeling, summarizes its findings as follows: 鈥1. If the present […]
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1972 The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, meeting in Stockholm and attended by 113 nations, is the first global meeting of nations to consider environmental concerns The Conference Declaration opens with the finding that 鈥淭he protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and […]
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1971 Development of supersonic transport raises concerns about impacts on climate, and the Climate Impact Assessment Program is created under the Department of Transportation Described as 鈥渢he first major project in integrated assessment of an environmental issue,鈥 the mission statement of the Climate Impact Assessment Program (CIAP) states that 鈥渋n order to determine regulatory constraints […]
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1970 Congress enacts the Clean Air Act, in a near-unanimous endorsement of strong environmental protections In a remarkable show of bipartisanship, the Senate vote for the Clean Air Act is unanimous, the House vote 374 to 1. The New York Times describes the legislation as 鈥渇ar broader in its reach, far tougher in its deadlines […]
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1970 President Richard Nixon establishes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 takes effect President Richard Nixon鈥檚 Special Message to Congress in establishing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opens by noting that 鈥淸a]s concern with the condition of our physical environment has intensified, it has become increasingly clear […]
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1967 Syukuro Manabe and Richard T. Wetherald are the first to use a computer model to explore the impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide on the Earth鈥檚 climate Syukuro Manabe and Richard T. Wetherald publish 鈥淭hermal Equilibrium of the Atmosphere with a Given Distribution of Relative Humidity鈥 in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.聽They conclude […]
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1965 President Lyndon Johnson states in a Special Message to Congress,聽鈥淭his generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through 鈥 a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels鈥 President Johnson鈥檚 鈥淪pecial Message on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty鈥 begins with the observation that 鈥渕odern technology, […]
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1965 Roger Revelle contributes to the first mention of global warming in a government report, drawing an analogy between human-produced gases entering the global atmosphere and the effect of glass in a greenhouse Serving on the President鈥檚 Science Advisory Committee Panel on Environmental Pollution, oceanographer Roger Revelle contributes to an appendix to the government report […]
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1957 American oceanographers聽Roger Revelle and Hans Suess demonstrate that CO2 levels in the air have increased as a result of the use of fossil fuels Roger Revelle and Hans Suess of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography publish 鈥淐arbon Dioxide Exchange Between Atmosphere and Ocean and the Question of an Increase of Atmospheric CO2 during the […]
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1956 The New York Times publishes a summary of the Gilbert Plass paper headlined 鈥淲armer climate on the earth may be due to more carbon dioxide in the air鈥 The New York Times summary of the Gilbert Plass paper concludes: 聽鈥淓ven if our coal and oil reserves will be used up in 1,000 years, seventeen […]
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