Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere
At the Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere: Implications for Global Security, hosted by Canada in Toronto, Ontario, starting on 27 to 30 June 1988, the 300 participants—including policy makers, international scientists, non-governmental and governmental organizations, and United Nations organizations—issued a warning at the conclusion of the conference that humans had unintentionally triggered uncontrolled changes to the atmosphere that if left unchecked could ultimately lead to "consequences could be second only to a global nuclear war." The Toronto Conference took place in the same week that James Hansen, who served as director of NASA's Manhattan-based Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) from 1981 to 2013, had cautioned in his 23 June 1988 testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, that it was 99% certain that the global "warming trend was not a natural variation" but was the result of by a "buildup" of and other "artificial gases in the atmosphere." The Conference "launched" discussions of potential international action and public policy responses to climate change which included early targets for emission reductions. Overview Then Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney gave the opening address and Tom McMillan, then Minister of the Environment, gave the closing