On this day, April 1, 1970 55 years ago, people in Melbourne were treated to a British documentary called “Pollution: And on the Eighth Day.” that, near the end of its hour run-time briefly warned them about carbon dioxide build up.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 324ppm. As of 2025 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that from about 1967-68 onwards, people in the UK, Australia and the United States were becoming more and more alarmed at changes in the natural environment and the impacts of technological “progress” etc. In 1969 a television documentary maker called Richard Broad put together a program called Pollution: And On The Eighth Day. This had been shown in the UK in January 1970 with considerable media attention, and now it was being broadcast in Melbourne. A couple of weeks before Australian Parliament had had its first mention of the issue when South Australian Richard Gunn raised it in his maiden speech.
What I think we can learn from this is that British documentaries were trusted and respected. What we don’t know is whether this had much impact on the people of Melbourne. The broader context was that by 1970 people were identifying carbon dioxide as a long term possible threat, and that this was being noticed by readers of newspapers and writers of letters to newspapers.
What happened next The Australian government started to mention the issue in passing. It would take until 1988 before the problem became an issue…
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.