The paper proposes a research plan to deal with the question of what the response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would be to a rise in global temperatures caused by an anthropogenic CO2 buildup in the atmosphere. The plan is designed to answer the following questions: (1) how fast is the ice mass changing now, and why; (2) how will the boundary conditions that affect the ice sheet respond to an atmospheric temperature change and how are those boundary conditions changing now; (3) what will be the response of the ice sheet to changes in boundary conditions; and (4) what can be learned by analogy with what has happened in the past. (ACR).

In adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, mankind is unintentionally conducting a great biological and geophysical experiment. This experiment can be expected to increase scientific understanding of ecological systems and of the processes in the ocean and the atmosphere that partially determine world climate. But from the standpoint of governments and peoples, the major problem to be solved is to understand the nature of the impacts on societies of rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), with the objective of avoiding or ameliorating unfavorable impacts and gaining most benefit from favorable impacts. The research program proposed herein is designed to provide the understanding needed to achieve this objective. It is based on a recognition of the distinctive characteristics of the CO2 problem. It is concluded that three kinds of research on the consequences of rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and possible climatic changes are called for: assessment of risks; research to enhance beneficial effects and lessen harmful ones, where this is possible, and to slow down rates of carbon dioxide emission; and study of potential social and institutional responses to projected climatic changes.