Here's an interesting lecture where Dr. MacCracken explains the state of the science, aka consensus, as it was in 1982. It's an interesting historical document that reveals what we knew and where the uncertainties were.
Even better it shows a scientist in action, (not perfectly polished like so many on the climate science denialist's talk circuit), but with a deep commitment to arriving at honest, defensible conclusions while never neglecting uncertainties and all they don't yet understand.
Dr. Michael MacCracken received his B.S. in Engineering degree from Princeton University in 1964 and his Ph.D. degree in Applied Science from the University of California Davis/Livermore in 1968. At the time of this lecture he was deputy division leader of the atmospheric and geoscience division of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
Dr. MacCracken sent me a nice note, when I notified him of this new collection, it included the following worth sharing information:
"A the time I was also an adviser to the Department of Energy’s climate change research and climate modeling program, which I had in part prompted with a letter to them way back in 1975, and so, in that capacity, was involved in examining and considering the science across the whole field, and not just in the modeling area where I was personally active.
I think the lecture tape is pretty complete except towards the end where they actually had to change the tape as I ran a bit long."
Mike MacCracken"
