Forty-six years ago, on this day, October 14, 1980,
A meeting of “sherpas” (diplomats who work to make G-7 Summits achievable – geddit?) in Washington DC, with the Carter Administration’s “Global 2000” report on the agenda.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was xxxppm. 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 there had been various attempts to get international environmental action going (NATO’s CCMS in the late 1960s the UNCHE process, around Stockholm), without a lot of enthusiasm. In 1976 the French had organised an ad hoc meeting at Rambouillet. At a later G7 (as it became) meeting in Tokyo, in 1979, carbon dioxide build-up was explicitly on the agenda.
The specific context was that an attempt to repeat the trick in 1980, with a push by Crispin Tickell, had been scuppered by early 1980. But in August 1980, after Venice, the Global 2000 report had come out, and Carter people were trying to use it to keep it on the agenda.
G7 meeting in Venice had NOT dealt with CO2 of course.
What I think we can learn from this that the G7 has an interesting history of non-action
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What happened next – the Ottawa G7 was similarly mealy-mouthed. In 1984 there was a bit more “oomph” (thanks to Tickell briefing Thatcher) and then finally in 1989 the French hosted a G7 with climate front and centre
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
Global 2000 stuff
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:
October 14, 1977 – a UNESCO education conference mentions climate change…
October 14, 1980 – Barry Commoner’s “bullshit” advert…