Fourteen years ago, on this day, September 30th, 2012,
Barry Commoner, a pioneering environmental scientist and activist, died Sunday at age 95.
Described in 1970 by Time magazine as the “Paul Revere of ecology,” Commoner followed Rachel Carson as America’s most prominent modern environmentalist. He viewed the environmental crisis as a symptom of a fundamentally flawed economic and social system. A biologist and research scientist, he argued that corporate greed, misguided government priorities, and the misuse of technology undermined “the finely sculptured fit between life and its surroundings.”
Barry Commoner Dead: Pioneering Environmental Scientist and Activist Dies at 95 | HuffPost Impact
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 394ppm. 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 Barry Commoner had been a very important figure in global environmental awareness, especially around Project Sunshine and Fallout, and his book Science and Survival in 1966 really was important for sensitising people to the build up of carbon dioxide. There’s a direct line to the 1967 documentary by Roy Battersby, and Commoner had stood for president in 1980
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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Also on this day:
September 30, 1969 -US activist publication mentions climate change
September 30, 1977 – “Carbon Dioxide and climate: carbon budget still unbalanced”
September 30, 1991 – Hawke’s ministers and ESD
September 30, 2009 – Tony Abbott says #climate science is “absolute crap”