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July 26, 1977 – Australians warned about cities being flooded #CanberraTimes

On this day, July 26, 1977 the Canberra Times had a story with the cheerful title cities could be flooded.

And, yes – for the third day a row, I am writing about events that happened FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO.

This is the Canberra Times getting a story off “the wire” about that National Academy of Science report that I have been banging on about for the last two days.

With the benefit of hindsight, this closing sentences are amusing.

“The report said there was no cause for panic. But Mr Revelle said, “We have to be prepared to go to other sources than coal in about 50 years”.”

Why this matters. 

The Canberra Times is one of the newspapers for the big decision makers in Australia. “We knew.” But the lurer of coal was too strong…

What happened next?

Four years later the Office of National Information (a spy/analyst outfit) wrote about the Greenhouse effect. Speedy, huh? Another four years or so and we got the Greenhouse Project, courtesy of Barry Jones’ “Commission for the Future.” But I am getting ahead of myself…

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