Forty seven years ago, on this day, September 30th, 1977, the journal Science tells the truth, for those who want to listen, with an article with the title “Carbon Dioxide and Climate: Carbon Budget Still Unbalanced.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 334ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that the 2 year study “Energy and Climate” had been released a couple of months before.
What I think we can learn from this – we knew, we knew we knew. Also, the idea of “carbon budgets” is an older one than most would understand.
What happened next In 1979, their ad hoc panel Charney panel met and did the numbers again and said “yeah, this is a thing.” Climate change then popped up in the Global 2000 report, as well as the Council on Environmental Quality Report that made Carter’s Chief Scientific Adviser Frank Press somewhat unhappy. And then came Reagan; thus it was another eight years before the issue finally finally broke through.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I
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
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Also on this day:
September 30, 1969 -US activist publication mentions climate change
September 30, 2009 – Tony Abbott says #climate science is “absolute crap”