Fifty years ago, on this day, June 24th, 1974, smart people fret.
Conference on Science and Technology for Human Development, Bucharest, organised by World Council of Churches, 24 June-02 July 1974, 1973-1974
Scope and Contents The conference was organised to conclude the five-year ecumenical enquiry on ‘The Future of Man and Society in a World of Science-Based Technology’.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 330ppm. As of 2024 it is 426ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context is that in the aftermath of the environment conference in Stockholm in June of 72, every man and their dog is holding conferences with words like science, technology, and environment. And here’s one in Bucharest, behind the Iron Curtain.
What we learn is that there are fads and that people want to jump on bandwagons. I’m also being too cynical. If you’re bothered about the future of the species,in the mid-70s, you would be holding conferences with titles including the word science technology, environment. What else are you going to do?
What happened next. The 70s went on with stagflation and threats of internal reaction. There’s a mildly amusing blog post or Twitter thread or whatever I saw about Henry Kissinger changing Gerald Ford’s tune on IMF bailout for the UK because Kissinger foresaw the threat of internal revolution in the UK.
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.
Also on this day:
June 24 1985 – Climate change rears its head at a development meeting…
June 24, 1986 – New Yorkers get to watch a documentary on “The Climate Crisis”