One hundred and sixteen years ago, on this day, January 11th, 1909, a deal on international pollution gets inked.,
Since early in this century the Consolidated Mining-and Smelting Company of Canada, Ltd., has operated a smelter for refining lead and zinc at Trail, B.C., in the Columbia River Valley. The plant is seven miles (eleven miles along the river channel) north of the international boundary line between Canada and the United States. As the capacity of the plant increased through the years, its emissions of SO2 increased correspondingly. Between 1924 and 1926 the amount doubled, and beginning in 1925 damage to crops in the Columbia River Valley south of the border became serious enough for the United States to request indemnity and corrective action.
The claim for damages was referred in 1928 to the International Joint Commission, United States and Canada, under Article IX of the Convention of January 11, 1909, between the United States and Great Britain.’
page 23-4 of Neiburger, Morris. (1973). International Aspects of Air Pollution. Stanford Journal of International Studies, 8, 16-30.
Boundary Waters and Questions Arising along the Boundary with Canada, January 11 , 19o9, art. IX, 36 Stat. 2448, 2452 [9igog T.S. 548
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 299ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that the US and Great Britain, who had fought various wars against each other and were apparently close again in 15 years before this, signe an agreement about boundary issues. This treaty that was invoked much later, 15 years later, because of a giant Canadian smelter causing environmental problems in the US. Now this is really obviously very obscure, and I only found it via a Google Scholar search for “January 11” and “greenhouse effect”. But what it tells us, what we learn, is that trans boundary air pollution has been on the agenda in the courts, etc, since, well, for 100 years, at least,
What happened next? Well, I didn’t know how that was resolved. I do know that in 1971 the Nixon government was thinking about imposing a tax on sulfur emissions, and of course, emissions trading, using the example of The Clean Air Act of 1990 has held us up for a long time as a really small policy solution to much bigger, transformative issues.
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:
Jan 11, 1964 -: The Merchants of Doubt have work to do
January 11, 1970 – A new Ice Age on its way?
January 11, 2010 – Bad news study about trees and the warming Arctic…