Seventy years ago, on this day, June 13, 1963, high-powered scientists Werner Von Braun and Roger Revelle spitball the future, but don’t seem to talk about climate change…
13-14 June 1963 Teller Von Braun and Revelle at UCSD The Future of Science conference
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 321.4ppm. As of 2023 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was Revelle had been at the Conservation Foundation’s meeting in March of 1963. Teller had written and publicly proclaimed about climate change, but neither of them particularly mentioned it on this occasion, as far as I can tell.
What I think we can learn from this is that carbon dioxide buildup was only one issue among many at the time, and didn’t warrant a lot of attention.
What happened next
Revelle kept publishing, kept working, died in 1991, and was used as a pawn in the culture war. Teller went on with his Dr. Strangelove obsessions and the Space-Based Defence initiative (Star Wars). And the carbon dioxide kept accumulating.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.