EPA, “Can We Delay a Greenhouse Warming?” (October 18, 1983)

Several EPA scientists wrote a report warning that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions could cause disastrous global warming, and that that warming might already be underway. They called for an "expeditious response." And they argued that, while currently politically infeasible, the only policy that would delay significant global warming was a ban on coal. Days after the EPA's global warming report, the NAS released its report. The reports agreed on the basic science, but the NAS report claimed that near-term action was unnecessary. Reagan's science advisor praised the NAS report and called EPA's report "unwarranted and unnecessarily alarmist."