Thirty-seven years ago, on this day, November 3rd, 1988 –
The Melbourne Age, at bottom of page 20
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 351ppm. 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 climate change (then called “the Greenhouse Effect”) was on the cusp of blowing up as a public policy issue in Australia, thanks to both international events (the Villach meeting and its aftermath, James Hansen’s testimony in 1988) and local factors and efforts (especially the CSIRO/Commission for the Future “Greenhouse Project”).
The specific context was that the big public meetings, linked by satellite (then novel) were to be held very soon.
What I think we can learn from this – the juxtaposition of climate and car adverts? It continues. We can be an asshole species.
What happened next – the meetings were held. The promises were made. The cars kept being sold, bigger and bigger, more and more. The emissions climbed.
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:
SEE October 27, 1988 – Guardian self-censorship story.
November 3, 1916 -measurement of ice flow shows climate change
November 3, 1990 – money for independent climate scientists? Yeah, nah
November 3, 1990 – more smears about the IPCC, in the Financial Times