Forty four years ago, on this day, September 25th, 1980
“In the basement of the Fairmont Hotel three months earlier on the morning of September 25, 1980, a reporter asked California Governor Reagan whether he would speak on the Global 2000 Study. While the media heavily covered the report even prior to its release in the summer of 1980, Reagan was caught off guard by the reporter’s request because he was entirely unaware of the report’s existence.” (Henderson, 2014)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 339ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that there had been a lot of publicity in the spring and summer about the Global 2000 report of Jimmy Carter. And Reagan, who by now had the Republican nomination sewn up, was merely revealing his complacency and laziness. He was famously very lazy. He wanted to just spend holidays on his ranch by the mid 80s, and people around him were contemplating invoking the 25th Amendment and replacing him with George HW Bush.
What we learn is that rich people back in those days could actively ignore environmentalist issues and not suffer any consequence. My how times have changed. Oh yes.
What happened next? Reagan became president. Global 2000 was in every sense defeated and the Heritage Foundation used it as a punching bag in the following years.
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.
References
Henderson, G. (2014). Raising the Alarm: The Cultural Origins of Climate’denialism’in America, 1970-1988. Michigan State University. History.
Also on this day:
September 25, 1991- European Commission proposes a carbon tax…
September 25, 2003 – Bob Carr “strikes greenhouse deal” with European investors