Revelle was a Professor of Oceanography and the Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1950 to 1964.
He was co-author of a 1957 paper connecting fossil fuels to CO2 in the air.
He led President's Science Advisory Committee Panel on Environmental Pollution in 1965 - which published a government report recognizing CO2 in the air as a potential global problem.
He was author of a 1982 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN article bringing global warming to the general public's attention.
He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Bush #41.
He called himself "the grandfather of the greenhouse effect".
He was called a "wonderful, visionary professor" by Al Gore.
Quotes from 1984 OMNI magazine interview:
OMNI:
"A problem that has occupied your attention for many years is the increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, which could cause Earth's climate to become warmer. Is this actually happening?"
REVELLE:
"I estimate that the total (CO2) increase over the past hundred years has been about 21%. But whether the increase will lead to a significant rise in global temperature, we can't absolutely say."
OMNI:
"What will the warming of the Earth mean to us?"
REVELLE:
"There may be lots of effects. Increased CO2 in the air acts like a fertilizer for plants … you get more plant growth. Increasing CO2 levels also affect water transpiration, causing plants to close their pores and sweat less. That means plants will be able to grow in drier climates."
OMNI:
"Does the increase in CO2 have anything to do with people saying the weather is getting worse?"
REVELLE:
"People are always saying the weather's getting worse. Actually, the CO2 increase is predicted to temper weather extremes."
In 1991 Revelle was a co-author of a COSMOS: A JOURNAL OF EMERGING ISSUES article titled:
"What To Do About Greenhouse Warming: Look Before You Leap".
From that article,
"Stringent controls enacted now would be economically devastating, particularly for developing countries for whom reduced energy consumption would mean slower rates of economic growth without being able to delay greatly the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."
That article upset Al "the science is settled" Gore, who tried to get Revelle's name removed from reprints of the article, and from an anthology book that was going to include the article, by using Harvard Professor Justin Lancaster as his "front man".
Lancaster was an advisory editor for an anthology of articles book that planned to include Revelle's article.
In a memorial symposium for Revelle, Dr. Lancaster charged Revelle's name was put on that article over his objections.
Both Gore and Lancaster claimed Revelle was senile and duped by Dr. Singer.
Primary author Dr. Fred Singer sued Lancaster and won his libel suit.
- Lancaster's extensive contacts with Al Gore were documented.
- Revelle's secretary provided Revelle's calendar while the article was being written, showing he was attending and speaking at conferences throughout the period the article was being written.
- Lancaster settled the case with a complete written retraction of every false charge he had made, and an apology to Professor Singer.
.
After the settlement, smarmy Gore attacked Dr. Singer's character ... and smarmy Lancaster, many years later, stridently retracted his retraction.
.
The main point here is that Revelle sounded like a real scientist, cautious and objective, while Gore sounded like the smarmy politician he has always been.
Source of information for this post:
"The Deniers", by Lawrence Solomon.
This excellent book was the best of 4 "denier" books I could identify in a computer search of the book database of my local library in Birmingham, Michigan -- The Baldwin Library.
I identified 212 books with two subject searches, one for "global warming", and the second for "climate change".
I read the title and one paragraph description of each book, and could only identify 4 of 212 books that were skeptical about claims of a coming global warming catastrophe.
All four were checked out and read.
"The Deniers" was the best.