Fifty-seven years ago, on this day, August 25th, 1969,the American Meteorological Society and Royal Society Conference
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 324ppm. 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 questions of meteorology and climate were beginning to heat up (sorry). There were concerns about weird weather, local air pollution etc etc.
The specific context was that the previous year the American Association for the Advancement of Science had run a symposium…
What I think we can learn from this – that events like this were important for the emerging “epistemic community”, in the lead up to the Stockholm conference and beyond.
What happened next
Within a few months scientific meetings about manc’s impact on the environment – and then in 1971 a meeting on possible climatic changes – were held. By the late 1970s, the picture was pretty clear. Everything since then has been refinements, really.
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 25, 1933 – South Coast Bulletin reports “Carbon dioxide: climatic influence”
August 25, 1970 – Margaret Mead and James Baldwin rap on race…
August 25, 2013 – The IPA loses support, for being stupid climate deniers.