Fifty one years ago, on this day, May 12th, 1974, the Grey Lady (New York Times) runs a story about the colourless gas…,
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 330ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was the Arab oil embargo, in response to US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur war, had spiked oil prices. While the oil companies were coining it, everyone was looking around for Alternatives
(environmental considerations around energy production were not an issue for most people at this point).
What I think we can learn from this– the Hydrogen hype has waxed and waned and waxed and waned… There is little new under the sun.
What happened next fossil fuels managed to maintain their “indispensible” status (with a little help from their friends, who starved the alternatives, including solar, efficiency etc, of research and development funds…). The emissions climbed, the atmospheric concentrations climbed. Fun fact – by the late 1970s, Exxon (and other oil companies) absolutely knew what was coming.
And we are here, now, at the end of the world, more or less, give or take some decades of horror.
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:
May 12, 1989 – USA says it will, after all, support the idea of a #climate treaty
May 12, 1995 – Another bet between cornucopians and realists