One hundred and ninety five years ago, on this day, September 15th, 1830,
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway[1][2][3] (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world.[4][i] It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England.[4] It was also the first railway to rely exclusively on locomotives driven by steam power, with no horse-drawn traffic permitted at any time; the first to be entirely double track throughout its length; the first to have a true signalling system; the first to be fully timetabled; and the first to carry mail.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 284ppm. 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 poor bloody horses had been pulling wagons of coal along tracks for a while. Then someone had the bright idea of getting steam engines to do the work…
The specific context was an MP got himself killed.
What I think we can learn from this Is that we are a very inventive bunch of murder apes.
What happened next “Railway mania”. And almost 200 years later, the English can’t even build a railway between London and Manchester. But we’re definitely going to build a huge CCS infrastructure. Sure we are.
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:
September 15, 1980 – Australian scientists hold “Carbon Dioxide and Climate” symposium in Canberra
September 15, 1982/1990 – “Environmental Justice” is born. And so is Captain Planet…
September 15, 1996 – A CCS posterchild is born: Sleipner Field comes online. – All Our Yesterdays
September 15, 2008- business splits over what to extort from Rudd…