ABSTRACT
The subject attracted little interest until the late 1950s, but in 1957 the International Geophysical Year provided the foundations for a global scientific community dedicated to understanding planetary processes and human influence on them, and established a network of monitoring stations. Observations immediately began to trace a steady rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide. A decade later, a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) documented concerns about possible climate change, and by 1970 the Secretary General of the United Nations was sufficiently concerned to mention the possibility of a 'catastrophic warming effect' in his report on the environment.
