Forty-eight years ago, on this day, June 6th, 1977 German climatologist Herman Flohn, who had been aware of Guy Callendar’s work during the war, asked “whither the atmosphere and Earth’s climate?,
Flohn at “Growth without Ecodisasters?” conference – Whither the Atmosphere and Earth’s Climates? by Prof. Hermann Flohn (Germany): Chman Dr Thomas F. Malone (USA)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 333ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that in the mid-1970s it became obvious to smart scientists that the carbon dioxide problem was going to be THE issue – see for example Wally Broecker in Science in 1975.
The specific context was that by the mid-1970s there was also a steady circuit of these sorts of hand-wringing international conferences, the humanities version of what the IIASA crowd of technocrats were doing…
What I think we can learn from this is that the 1970s really was – as per Richard Nixon and the UK Conservation Society – the “decade of decision.” And we – at a species level – decided by not deciding. Oops.
What happened next
Flohn kept up the good fight – as late as the 1990s he was trying to push back against the climate denialists (LINK)
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:
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