On this day 23 September 1986, Senator Joe Biden (what happened to THAT guy?) launched the “Biden Initiative on Global Warming.”
Yes, 1986.
The excellent book by Howe, “Behind the Curve” contains this
“Throughout the mid-1980s, Al Gore and his fellow congressional Democrats continued to push the Reagan administration to begin dealing with the problem of climate change. In 1986, Senator Joe Biden introduced an initiative mandating that the president commission an executive-level task force to devise a strategy for responding to global warming – a strategy the president was meant to deliver to Congress within one year. The initiative became the Global Climate Protection Act of 1987, which the president signed. The bill in the end required very little real commitment from the administration, but it demonstrated an expanding congressional interest in climate change that raised the domestic political profile of the State Department’s negotiations with UNEP and the WMO leading up to the IPCC. It also led to more congressional hearings on the issue, which helped keep global warming in the news and thus on the public agenda.”
(Howe, 2014:160)
The Biden Initiative on Global Warming, Sept 23 1986 https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/senate-bill/2891
“Directs the President to establish a Task Force on the Global Climate to research, develop, and implement a coordinated national strategy on global climate. Requires such Task Force to transmit a United States Strategy on the Global Climate to the President within a year. Requires the President to then report to specified members of Congress on such report.
Directs the President to appoint an ambassador at large to coordinate Federal efforts in multilateral activities relating to global warming.
Directs the Secretary of State to promote the early designation of an International Year of Global Climate Protection.
Urges the President to give climate protection high priority on the agenda of U.S.-Soviet relations.”
On this day the PPM was 345.48 ppm.
Now it is 420ish – but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
The pre-1988 activity matters, so we know just how long we’ve been talking about maybe eventually doing something about “it.”
What happened next?
Oh, don’t the wheels grind slowly (or spin aimlessly).