May 11, 1988 – “Greenhouse Glasnost” USA and USSR to co-operate on climate

On this day in 1988

“a new form of scientific communication between the United States and the Soviet Union was officially initiated in simultaneous opening ceremonies in Moscow and Washington DC. In a one-year bilateral project entitled “The Greenhouse/Glasnost Teleconference”, approximately 25 Soviet and American Scientists will be linked by computer to study the implications of global climatic change.”

The United States-Soviet “Greenhouse/Glasnost” Teleconference Peter H. Gleick: Ambio, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1988), pp. 297-298

By 1988 the Cold War was “over” – the coming of Gorbachev in 1985, the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and so on had meant that the sabre-rattling and terror of the early 80s was slowly receding. The teleconference (for which initial discussions had begun in 1985) was I think supposed to mark new scientific co-operation (the Soviets had been on the ball with awareness of carbon dioxide build-up at pretty much the same time as the Americans, i.e. from the late 1950s).

Why this matters

Good to remember that before Thatcher’s Damascene conversion in September of that year, the climate issue was being pushed up the agenda by decent people

What happened next

The Soviet Union collapsed. The “West” went on a decade-long victory lap of idiotic triumphalism. And here we are, with the atmosphere getting properly full of co2, and the consequences closing in…