Fifty six years ago, on this day, June 23rd, 1969,the Cuyahoga river in Ohio caught fire again.
As per Wikipedia –
As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so much so that it caught fire at least 14 times. When it did so on June 22, 1969, news coverage of the event helped to spur the American environmental movement.[8][9] For many Americans, the Cuyahoga’s burning helped connect urban decay with the environmental crisis at the time in many American cities.[10] Since then, the river has been extensively cleaned up through the efforts of Cleveland’s city government and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA).[11] In 2019, the American Rivers conservation association named the Cuyahoga “River of the Year” in honor of “50 years of environmental resurgence”.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 324.6ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was the river had actually caught fire before, at least 14 times, but this time it was captured on camera and came six months after the pivotal Santa Barbara Oil Spill.
What I think we can learn from this is that an “event” on its own is neither here nor there – it’s how it is mobilised/can fit into an existing set of concerns and understandings.
What happened next is that the first big wave of global environmental concern gathered pace, cresting and breaking in 1972. Lots of nice legislation and some local improvements (depending on where you live – if you’re in one of the sacrifice zones, not so much…). But the big ones – plastics, carbon, growth, they were not tackled, can’t be tackled within the logics of our systems. We are all going to die, quite pitiable deaths. It didn’t have to be this way, but now, well, it’s pretty much baked in, isn’t it?
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: