When the article was written, Revelle was 81 and had recently undergone open heart surgery. Lancaster tried unsuccessfully to block republication of the article, calling it "misleading" and "unscholarly." He claimed that Fred Singer had taken advantage of Revelle at a time when he was weak. In 1992 he complained repeatedly about the article to the editors of a book that was to include the controversial paper. I'm as close a colleague as anybody on this issue of global warming, in the last years of Roger's life, and I'm not going to sit silently and let this happen.īARON: Lancaster has been far from silent. LANCASTER: I see a group of people taking this article, saying it's the last testimony of Roger Revelle, and essentially using it against his career. Like Singer, Lancaster directs a nonprofit organization devoted to environmental policy, but he considers global warming a much greater threat. The person suing Lancaster is Fred Singer.
Lancaster is being sued for libel, for claiming that Revelle's name was placed on the Cosmos Journal article despite Revelle's objections. LANCASTER: I don't see that Roger Revelle wrote this article.īARON: That's Justin Lancaster, Revelle's former student and colleague at Scripps. The authors conclude that nations should take only modest and inexpensive steps to ward off possible global warming until more research is done. The paper questions the dangers of global warming, raising the possibility that the Earth's environment might in fact benefit from a warmed climate. SINGER: We say the scientific base for greenhouse warming includes some facts, lots of uncertainty, and just plain lack of knowledge.īARON: The article argues there's no good evidence to suggest the Earth is heating up, despite predictions that global warming should already be underway. He explains that the article wasn't meant to dismiss the possibility of global warming, but it was intended to show that no one knows how serious a threat global warming poses. Singer directs the nonprofit Science and Environmental Policy Project, and is a frequent critic of environmental activists. He co-wrote the article with Roger Revelle and Chauncy Starr, former president of the Electric Power Research Institute. And this is further emphasized in the article itself.īARON: That's Fred Singer. SINGER: Which means that we should think or a moment before we take drastic action. The article was titled, "What To Do About Greenhouse Warming: Look Before You Leap." GORE: He died last year, and just before he died he co-authored an article which had statements taken completely out of context.īARON: That article appeared in an obscure journal published by the Cosmos Club, a private, Washington-based organization with about 3,000 members. MODERATOR: If the audience would stop please. He believed up until the day he died (audience groans) - No, it's true. how he had been misquoted and had his remarks taken completely out of context just before he died. Gore was asked about the issue during the 1992 Vice Presidential debate. Gore's critics claimed that Revelle changed his mind about global warming in his final years. But after Revelle's death in 1991, some politicians and commentators tried to use Revelle's legacy against Gore, who was calling for strict international curbs on emissions of greenhouse gases. Vice President Al Gore wrote in his 1992 book, Earth in the Balance, that Revelle inspired his efforts to counter the Greenhouse Effect. Revelle wrote ominously that mankind was embarking on a great, one-time geophysical experiment. But in the 1950s he performed critical experiments that convinced scientists the threat was real. David Barron of member station WBUR in Boston explains.īARON: Roger Revelle wasn't the first person to suggest that carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels might build up in the atmosphere and cause a warming of the Earth's climate. Others say the article misrepresented Revelle's views for political purposes. The lawsuit involves a much-discussed article which some claim shows that Revelle changed his mind on global warming shortly before his death. Although they're not actually involved in the dispute, two of its major figures are Vice President Al Gore, who's an advocate of strong action to reduce greenhouse gases, and Roger Revelle, often called the Grandfather of the Greenhouse Effect and the man most influential in shaping Gore's position. And they're at the center of a bitter legal battle brewing in a state court in Massachusetts. How real is the threat of global warming? And how seriously should the Federal Government try to reduce the production of greenhouse gases? Those are two of the biggest issues in environmental policy today. I'm Jan Nunley, in this week for Steve Curwood.
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