Denise Drace-Brownell

Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide Imperatives Denise Drace-Brownell

This paper discusses climate change and greenhouse gas data as of April 1992, including the findings given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group One, in their 1990 report. Working Group 1, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change: The IPCC Scientific Assessment, Cambridge, 1990. The paper further analyzes technology and political considerations, including embryonic international treaty discussions. The critical importance of a stabilization of carbon dioxide emissions at 1990 levels by the major industrialized countries by 2000 is identified. The potential devastation of a failure to act is stated. This paper served as early research grounding for the Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, Climate and Health Program, which was the first world-class program of its nature.(Author's note, March, 2020: This paper is prescient in its relevance to today's climate change conditions. The scientific foundations were clear in these early reports.)