Fifty five years ago, on this day, September 4th, 1969, the Canberra Times is in philosophical mood/mode…
Wood, J. 1969. Man and the new biology: Finding the truth. Canberra Times, 4 September, p.23.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107890419
By JONATHAN WOOD
This year’s University Lectures at the Australian National University, through the contributions of four Australian biological scientists, have formed the genesis of a philosophy and religion appropriate to modern man….
NB Aftermath of AAS in Adelaide in August….
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 324ppm. As of 2024 it is 420ishppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere conference had been held in Paris the year before. And everyone who was thinking about life on Earth and its prospects was scratching their head about impacts and what might be done. And here we have some a new Australian National University biologists scratching their heads
What we learn is that 1969-1970 is the year that eco concern really starts to kick into high gear. 1968 is the year of violence and Vietnam. ‘69 is half fragile, biosphere and all the rest of it thanks to new science and new field configuring events and so forth.
What happened next? The Australian scientists kept banging on about this stuff publishing books. MacFarlane Burnet, the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science got a serious makeover from a dreary magazine to Search. And for a while it looks like we might do something meaningful. But we didn’t. Ditto the same feeling in the late 80s, early 90s.
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:
September 4, 1990 – Industry whines about environment minister’s speech
September 4, 2000 – industry says sky will fall if there’s a carbon tax
September 4, 2006 – Royal Society to Exxon: “Knock it off with the funding to #climate deniers”