Fifty years ago, on this day, November 27th, 1974, AJ Dyer gave a presentation at the Australian Royal Meteorological Society – The Fear of Climatic Change
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 330ppm. As of 2024 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Australian meteorologists and climatologists were doing their own data collecting and looking closely at what else was being done elsewhere. And by 1974, it was clear that something was going on. It might be a short-term perturbation, and then normality would return. It might be a long term-change caused by natural fluxes and things that people we weren’t yet aware of. Or it might be caused by man; dust, waste heat or carbon dioxide. Internationally, US Secretary of State Henry war criminal Kissinger made an address to the United Nations General Assembly about the possibility of famine and food shortages as weather extremes kicked in.
What we learn is that nobody was quite sure at this point, but it was certainly worth talking about.
What happened next? The Labor Science minister under Whitlam had been persuaded by Nugget Coombs to request the Australian Academy of Science to do a study and report into climatic change (the one that Barrie Pittock headed).
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:
November 27, 1956 – New York Times science writer who covered C02 build-up dies.
November 27, 1969 – Canberra Times runs pollution article, mentions melting ice-caps
November 27, 1978 – “Impacts of climate on Australian Society and Economy” begins…