Climatic Effects of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 220; no. 4599; pp. 873 - 875
• Main Authors: MacCracken, Michael C., Idso, S. B., Hansen, J., Johnson, D., Lacis, A., Lebedeff, S., Lee, P., Rind, D., Russell, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 20.05.1983
• Subjects: Atmospheric models; Atmospherics; Carbon dioxide; Climate change; Climate models; Datasets; Global climate models; Global warming; Modeling; Water vapor
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.220.4599.873

Hansen et al. (1) have used numerical models to provide some insight into why and how the climate will respond to increasing CO sub(2) concentrations. In addition, however, they argue that the consistency of results from one-dimensional climate models and from observations of global surface air temperature over the last 100 years indicates that the climate is warming due to increasing CO sub(2) concentrations as global models predict. The authors agrees that the climatic record is not inconsistent with the projected warming to be expected if there is be an increase of 2 to 3 K for a doubling of CO sub(2) concentrations and strongly agree that first detection of such changes should be sought by analyses such as done by Hansen et al. However, there are a number of limitations in their analysis that must be resolved if we are to say with as much confidence as their article conveys that the initial climatic response to increasing CO sub(2) has been detected. The issues to be resolved are discussed.