Thirty six years ago today,
Demonstrating her continuing interest in climate change, Margaret Thatcher invited John Houghton to present the scientific findings of IPCC(1990) to her Cabinet on 21 May 1990.
Folland et al 2004
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 354ppm. As of 2026 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that again, the British government had been warned repeatedly about climate change. New Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in 1979 had responded to her Chief Scientific Advisor, “what you want me to worry about the weather?” And there had been other attempts to get her on board. Finally, in 1988 for domestic political reasons, she pivoted and gave her speech at the Royal Society. This set the ball in motion.
The specific context was that in April of 1989 Thatcher had held a one day seminar for her cabinet on what to do about the greenhouse effect. I think Houghton was there. A lot of other people were too. In November of ‘89 she’d given a talk at the United Nations General Assembly, and here she was as the IPCC First Assessment report was released, asking the head of the Met Office, (I think he’d retired from that post by then, but had become the chair of IPCC Working Group 1, I want to say) to give a presentation to her cabinet.
What I think we can learn from this is that the problem was not lack of information. The problem was the stupidity, greed, etc, of various politicians, but also the social and electoral systems that allowed them to be stupid and greedy and societal systems as well.
What happened next. Thatcher continued to manage the climate issue with nice speeches, but she never picked up the green gauntlet, either literal or metaphorical. And you see this pattern again and again. “Oh, look, we’ve had the top scientist in to speak to us. Therefore, give us a break.” And it’s rubbish. But liberals are happy to fall for it.
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:
May 21, 1971 – Marvin Gaye asks “What’s Going On?”
May 21, 1990 – “The Big Heat” documentary – All Our Yesterdays
May 21, 1998 – “Emissions Trading: Harnessing the Power of the Market”