Fifty four years ago, on this day, August 16th, 1971,
The changing chemistry of the oceans : proceedings of the twentieth Nobel symposium held 16-20th August, 1971 at Aspendäsgården, Lerum and Chalmers University of Technology, Götenborg, Sweden Nobel Symposium, (20th: Sweden: 1971); Dyrssen, David, editor; Jagner, D. joint editor 1972
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 326ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that from about 1968 (earlier in Sweden, by a couple of months), there had been an “environmental turn” – meaning people were beginning to realise that all this “Vorsprung durch Teknik” (progress through technology) came with a price tag – that air pollution, water pollution, the loss of habitats etc were not local events only, but symptoms of a wider set of problems. Heck, there was even going to be a conference in Stockholm the following year.
The specific context was that oceanographers had been very well aware of the pollution of the oceans – and that included the impact that raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels might have. After all, some of the very earliest papers about carbon dioxide were by oceanographers (Revelle and Seuss etc).
What I think we can learn from this – well, as with so many of these 60s and 70s posts, smart people knew. People reading newspapers knew. But getting action, beyond the creation of a few ministries and bureaucracies
What happened next Some Nobellers kept warning (e.g. 1974). The emissions? Kept going up, didn’t they?
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:
August 16, 2002 – “Oil Lobby Urges Bush to Keep Climate Change Off the Table at Earth Summit”
August 16, 2010 – Polar Bears going through the motions
August 16, 2012 – Tony Windsor calls Tony Abbott an “absolute disgrace” on carbon tax/climate