12 C E N T E R F O R I N T E R N AT I O N A L E N V I R O N M E N TA L L AW Abundance, and Fate of Gaseous Atmospheric Pollutants was delivered to W.A. Burhouse,84 Assistant Director of API’s Committee for Air and Water Conservation, the successor to the Smoke and Fumes Committee.85 Authored by SRI scientists Elmer Robinson and R.C. Robbins, the report addressed six pollutants, including carbon dioxide.86 It cautioned that rising levels of CO2 would likely result in rising global temperatures and that, if temperatures increased significantly, the result could be melting ice caps, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and serious environmental damage on a global scale.87 The scientists acknowledged that burning fossil fuels provided the best explanation for rising CO2. They further recognized that existing science was “detailed” and seemed “to explain adequately the present state of CO2 in the atmosphere.”88 The 1968 report from SRI did not state definitively that there was a scientific consensus on questions of climate, but concluded “[s]ignificant temperature changes are almost certain to occur by the year 2000 and these could bring about climatic changes.”89 Robinson and Robbins cautioned that these increased temperatures could result in melting ice caps, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and environmental damage on a global scale.90 In assessing future research needs with respect to CO2, Robinson and Robbins acknowledged that fossil fuel combustion provided the best explanation for rising carbon dioxide levels. More significantly, they concluded that: Past and present studies of CO2 are detailed and seem to explain adequately the present state of CO2 in the atmosphere. What is lacking is an application of these atmospheric CO2 data to air pollution technology and work toward systems in which CO2 emissions would be brought under control.91 By no later than 1968, therefore, API and its industry members were being warned by their own scientific consultants that the links between fossil fuel combustion and rising atmospheric CO2 were credible; that temperature rise was almost certain to result; and that the most pressing research need was into technologies to address and control the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. Although API quickly embraced other aspects of the Robinson and Robbins report, API asked SRI to review their findings on CO2 more extensively in a Supplemental Report submitted in 1969.92 This document had not yet been obtained when CIEL initially published its Smoke and Fumes database in 2016, and it has not previously been reported by other sources. Accordingly, and in view of its early extensive treatment of climate issues, it is discussed at length here. Unlike the original paper, the majority of SRI’s 1969 supplemental report focused on only two pollutants, one of which was atmospheric carbon dioxide. This supplement repeated and further substantiated most of the core conclusions of the prior report, including its recognition that: atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were steadily increasing; 90% of this increase could be attributed to fossil fuel combustion; and continued use of fossil fuels would inevitably and inexorably result in greater CO2 levels in the atmosphere. They reviewed the role of plant growth and of oceans both as sources of and as natural sinks for carbon dioxide. They found it unlikely that either changes in marine biomass or other natural changes in the biosphere could be responsible for rising CO2 levels, and further concluded that neither of these natural sinks could keep pace with the excess emissions created by burning fossil fuels. As a result, Robinson and Robbins estimated that the projected growth in fossil fuel use would push atmospheric CO2 to 370 ppm by the year 2000. This estimate proved remarkably accurate.93 EXHIBIT 2 Excerpt from 1969 Supplemental Report to API In their Supplemental Report to API, Robinson and Robbins acknowledged that the increase in atmospheric CO2 was of potential concern because of how it would affect the radiation balance of the earth. They discussed at length, and with approval, modeling done by Manabe and Weatherald, and estimated that on the basis of those models, an increase in CO2 to 370ppm would increase global temperatures by 0.5 C (0.9 F) by the year 2000. Again, Robinson and Robbins’ estimate proved remarkably accurate; between 1965 and 2000, long-term average global temperatures increased by approximately 0.5 C.94 They estimated that at 600 ppm, temperatures would rise by 2.36 C (4.2 F),95 while also