On this day (give or take),54 years ago at the Big Save The World conference in Stockholm, illusions were being shed, by Scottish biologist and all-round smart guy Frank Fraser Darling.
“At the UN conference at Stockholm, ten years ago, I remember between two sessions seeing Sir Frank Fraser Darling sitting by himself on a chair in a corridor adjoining the conference hall. I remember too sitting down next to him and asking him what he thought of the proceedings. He shook his head and looked thoroughly miserable. “We are doomed” he said. At the time, I did not really believe him. Perhaps, I was still (relatively) young and naive. Today, after having attended these three meetings, I know that he was right.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 326ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 432ppm. 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 for this was that the costs of industrialisation and population growth could not easily be ignored anymore (though the blame could be -and was – consistently misplaced). The Swedes proposed an international conference on ‘the Human Environment’ in 1968, and hosted it.
Meanwhile, Frank Fraser Darling had been aware of the carbon dioxide issue since – at the absolute latest – 1963, when he attended the Conservation Foundation meeting. He had devoted a portion of his 1969 Reith Lectures to the question of carbon dioxide build-up (name-checked in a 1969 editorial in The Economist)..
The specific context was that it was clearly going about as well as the pessimists said, and FFD could not pretend to himself….
What I think we can learn is this: the smart people, biologists more than climatologists, could tell where this was all headed.
What happened next: Stockholm gave us UNEP. The carbon dioxide question grew through the 1970s. By the late 1970s plenty of scientists felt we had enough information to start acting. It took another ten years, until 1988, for the problem to properly become an issue. At which point, the games of kayfabe began.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
Of Cliff Richard, a 60 year old #climate meeting and the grim meathook future…
March 12, 1963 – first scientific meeting about C02 build-up
I haven’t done a post about FFD’s Reith lectures yet?!!
References
You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
June 10, 1966 – Seaborg’s commencement address – All Our Yesterdays
June 10, 2015 – Abbott and Jones versus windfarms – All Our Yesterdays
June 10, 2019 – a booming market for hydrogen…. – All Our Yesterdays