On this day, thirty seven years ago “Ministers delay plans to curb climate danger”
GEOFFREY LEAN Environment Correspondent
The Observer March 19, 1989.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 353ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that scientists had been warning since the mid-late 1970s that there was serious trouble ahead.
The specific context was that the climate issue had exploded in September 1988 thanks in part to Margaret Thatcher’s speech at the Royal Society. In response, green groups had thrown down what they called the “Green Gauntlet,” 20 policy proposals; Thatcher had basically blanked it. And now we see this report that ministers delay plans to curb climate danger
What I think we can learn from this is that it’s easy to say something is an issue and get plaudits, but then when people say, what are you going to do about it, it begins to get awkward, doesn’t it? The management of the climate issue as a political problem, rather than a civilizational one, kicked in because it is the perfect super-wicked problem in terms of distributed responsibility, uncertainty, long term effects, etc, and the problem of free riders, all the rest of it.
What happened next Well, in the UK, there was Thatcher’s 1989 Cabinet meeting in April. Then the UNFCCC process kicked in. And so on.
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.
References
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Also on this day:
March 19, 1956 – Washington Post reports Revelle’s statements
March 19, 1970 – first warning in Australian parliament about carbon dioxide build-up
March 19, 1990 – Bob Hawke gives #climate speech
March 19, 1998 – industry cautiously welcoming emissions trading…
March 19, 2001 – US Secretary of Energy boasts about all the coal plants he will build (doesn’t).