Introduction

In May of 1974, the International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study (IFIAS) assembled an international planning workshop at the University of Bonn to identify top-priority studies on climate's impact on society, which merited research of a cross-disciplinary nature. In the spring of 1975, the IFIAS project firmed up around the notion of examining specifically the topic of "Drought and Man: The 1972 Case." And in the fall of 1974, IFIAS issued a widely circulated appeal for new attention to the problem. The widespread publicity of the misery of the tragically malnourished children of regions of Africa and in Bangladesh resulted in a perhaps overly-simplified perception by most people of climate's impact on food supplies. Most climate experts are convinced, for example, that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will double over this time span, mainly as a result of the burning of fossil fuels for energy use.