Thirty years ago, on this day, April 22nd, 1996,
A more organised opposition to the IPCC’s conclusions began in the USA on Earth Day (22 April 1996), with a message distributed widely, including to every member of the US Congress, and with the first issue of the State of the Climate Report attached in which the IPCC conclusions were challenged. However, just as this report was about to be published, the Union of Concerned Scientists denounced it in a press release, based on earlier contributions to the media debate about global warming by the man in charge, Patrick Michaels: “The forthcoming climate change report sponsored by Western Fuels Association is like a lung cancer study funded by the tobacco industry.”
(Bolin, 2007) Page 128
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 362ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that the denialists had won major battles in 1989 to 1992 by convincing George Bush to play hardball and to threaten to boycott the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the Rio treaty, if targets and timetables were included in the treaty text.
Then denialists had also defeated Bill Clinton’s BTU tax in 1993.
The denialists were also gearing up for a battle royale over the upcoming Kyoto conference, and here we see them sending a message on Earth Day to all congresspeople as part of the day-to-day routine of blitzing politicians with talking points, which will be picked up and used by friends and allies and will be a reminder to those who were not their friends and allies that they the bad guys still exist and can make trouble.
The specific context was that the Kyoto battles were just beginning…
What I think we can learn from this is that evil never sleeps, never takes a step back unless forced to.
What happened next: Evil has kept on winning. Oh well.
Also on this day:
April 22, 1965 – Manchester Evening News article on C02 and global warming – All Our Yesterdays
April 22, 1975 – UK Civil Service scratches its head on #climate
April 22, 1993 – Clinton’s announcement used by anti-carbon pricing Aussies