Forty seven years ago, on this day, July 17th, 1979,
U.S. Senate, Committee on Governmental Affairs, Synthetic Fuels, Hearing, 17–20 July 1979)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 337ppm. As of 2026, 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 the dream of turning coal into oil/gas was an old one. It is, technically doable but only at enormous (financial and ecological) cost.
In the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the quadrupling of energy prices, governments were looking again at synthetic fuels…
The specific context was that the Carter administration had been forging ahead, even as climate scientists (then a new breed) were warning of the carbon dioxide implications…(the first world climate conference had just happened).
What I think we can learn from this: We are not a terribly bright species.
What happened next – Helmut Schmidt got Abraham Ribicoff switched onto the climate problem. The synfuels never happened. The emissions and atmospheric concentrations kept climbing. Oh well.
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On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
July 30, 1979 – synfuels would be sinful…
July 30, 1979 – scientists warn US Senators about synfuels and carbon dioxide build-up
References
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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.
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Also on this day:
July 17, 1912 – Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal on climate change
July 17, 1968 – Scoop Jackson’s colloquium
July 17, 1991 – G7 DOESN’T talk about climate…
July 17, 2006 – Australian Prime Minister shits on renewables, blah blah “realistic”
July 17, 2014 – Australian elected idiot is highly visibly idiotic