Forty four years ago, on this day, October 21st, 1980, a conference in London…
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26222336
A report on the conference ‘Climate and Offshore Energy Resources’, Royal Society, 21–23 October 1980
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 the First World Climate Conference had happened in Geneva the previous year, but Bolin was still trying to shepherd stuff around CO2 build up through the scientific collaboration systems, with help from Mustafa Tolba. Bolin of course had been banging on about climate change and CO2 buildup since 1958. And Bolin had been at a 1969 conference at the Royal Society and here he was 10 years later.
What we learn is that we knew, and that Bolin did his best.
What happened next. It was another 8 years before elite politicians had to start paying lip service to “the greenhouse effect.”
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:
October 21, 1983 – “Changing Climate” report released
October 21, 1989 – Langkawi Declaration on environmental sustainability…