Sixty years ago, on this day, January 13, 1965, Lyndon Johnson got a memo about environmental problems, including carbon dioxie buildup. We know this thanks to the sterling investigative work of Rebecca John, writing for DeSmog.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 320ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that US scientists, including Roger Revelle and Charles Dave Keeling had been measuring and pondering. A couple of years before this memo, in March 1963 the Rockefeller-funded Conservation Foundation had held a meeting on carbon dioxide build-up. The following year Revelle had chaired a group looking at environmental problems (the group included Margaret Mead!).
What I think we can learn from this is that the information was getting to the very top quite quickly.
What happened next
A month after the memo, LBJ gave a special address to Congress on environmental problems included a mention of C02 build up
Two years to the day later an editorial appeared in Science pointing to … carbon dioxide as a problem
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:
January 13, 2004 – Bob Carr rallies states for emissions trading
January 13, 2005- UN Secretary-General calls for “decisive measures” on climate change