A Personal Perspective on the Public Policy Implications of the Charney Report
Abstract
The Charney report was more than a scientific report. It was part of a process that led to making the greenhouse effect into a public policy issue. It is not well understood how a series of reports (the most important of which was the Charney report) led ultimately to the establishment of the IPCC a decade later. One geophysicist who played a key role was Dr. Gordon MacDonald who chaired the JASON study on radiative forcing in 1978-9. (The Long Term Impact of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Climate (SRI International, Technical Report JSR-78-07, April 1979)) Dr. MacDonald briefed numerous policy makers as a result of the JASON report which in turn helped to stimulate significant reports by the NAS (The Charney Report,1979), the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency. These reports in turn ultimately led to a series of Congressional hearings during the 1980’s that turned climate change into a public policy issue. It was the key conclusions on the Charney report which ultimately provided the Congress and the world a basis on which to begin to develop a response to the climate issue. I had the privilege of working with Dr. MacDonald through this process and will provide a personal perspective.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFMGC22A..01P
- Keywords:
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- 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE