Sixty-six years ago, on this day, November 4th, 1959, Dr Strangelove tells it like it is.
Energy and Man symposium at Columbia University. Teller points out carbon dioxide accumulation is gonna be a problem.
You can read about it in this fantastic post
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 316ppm. 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 from 1953, when Gilbert Plass made his presentation at the American Geophysical Union, carbon dioxide had been talked about by knowledgeable scientists as a potential problem.
The specific context was that the International Geophysical Year had concluded at the end of 1958, and the data was coming in. But Teller already knew about this…
What I think we can learn from this – “we” knew. We were warned. We chose to ignore the warnings.
What happened next – it would take another 29 years – until mid-1988 – before the issue finally broke through.
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:
November 4, 1999 – Australians have highest per capita emissions – All Our Yesterdays
November 4, 1988 – no quick fix on climate, warns Australian Environment Minister