Did the Nixon administration know about global warming?

As it turns out, the fear of global warming is not a new phenomenon.

Documents released Friday by the Nixon Presidential Library show members of President Richard Nixon's inner circle were discussing the possibilities of global warming more than 30 years ago, The Associated Press reported.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat adviser within the administration, apparently urged the Nixon administration to initiate a worldwide system of monitoring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, decades before the issue of global warming came to the public's attention -- with the help of Al Gore.

In a 1969 September memo, Moynihan wrote that there was a widespread agreement that carbon dioxide content would rise 25 percent by 2000.

This could increase the average temperature near the earth's surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit, he wrote. This in turn could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter.

Moynihan was Nixon's counselor for urban affairs from January 1969, when Nixon began his presidency, to December 1970. He later served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before New York voters elected him to the Senate.