Fifty seven years ago, on this day, August 27th, 1969,
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 324ppm. 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 that through the 60s there had been increasing concern about the costs of industrialization. This was especially visible in big cities around air pollution, most infamously Los Angeles. London, Tokyo, and Australian cities, especially Sydney and Melbourne, were concerned that they would end up in the same place. Clean Air Societies were formed, conferences were held, etc.
The specific context was in 1968-69 “pollution” became the word of the day. This was especially thanks to the Santa Barbara oil shock following on from the Torrey Canyon a couple of years earlier, and then the river in Ohio catching fire, and so forth. So, really, 1969 is the year that pollution starts to take hold, and a cynic might argue that talking about pollution allowed people to talk about their distaste or concern about where America was going without talking about the Vietnam War. Also, in ‘69 the UN Secretary General had made various speeches, and there had been a report following on from the 1968 Biosphere Conference.
What I think we can learn from this is that The Australian used to be a newspaper as well as a propaganda rag. Now it’s just the latter. And propaganda that looks like propaganda is third rate propaganda, but then if you’ve created generations of third-rate educated people, you only need third rate propaganda.
What happened next Everybody started pretending to give a shit about pollution, up to and including John Gorton, the Australian Prime Minister. In May1971 Australia got an Environment Minister, Peter Howson, but the wave kind of fizzled out by 1973 though some people stuck with it, of course.
xxx
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
Xx
References
xx
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:
August 27, 1859 – The Oil Age begins. UPDATED TO BE a) accurate b) less Eurocentric
August 27, 1962 – Mariner 2 sets off for Venus
August 27, 1970 – Sydney Town Hall packed with greenies wanting action.
August 27, 1993 – international negotiations edge forward
August 27, 2013 – absurd claim of Nobel-prize winners’ support for Liberal non-policy is debunked