October 15, 1950 – is Climate Changing? Asks New York Times

Seventy six years ago, on this day, October 15th, 1950,

Is the world warming up? Dr. Joseph J. Hickey, Professor of Wildlife Management at the University of Wisconsin, holds that it is. He has drawn his evidence from the changing habits of some half-dozen species of mammals …

Is Climate Changing?; Habits of Mammals and Birds Suggest World Is Warmer. New York Times October 15, 1950 https://www.nytimes.com/1950/10/15/archives/is-climate-changing-habits-of-mammals-and-birds-suggest-world-is.html?eafs_enabled=false

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 310ppm. 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 it was apparent from the 1930s onwards that the world was warming. The warming seemed to be accelerating. No one was quite sure why; sun’s activity, sun spots, orbital wobbles, whatever.

But usually in these circumstances the empirics come first, and then the theories to make a decent picture that fits most of the facts as we know them comes next.

And here you see the New York Times doing the same as other papers had already done. For example, Saturday Evening Post in July of the same year.

On a cynical level, stories about the weather are always nice eyeball bait/”click bait”. 

What I think we can learn from this – the word’s warming was not regarded as particularly controversial (because it wasn’t being pinned on human activity).

What happened next In 1953 Gilbert Plass got the carbon dioxide theory originally propounded by Tyndall, Arrhenius and Callendar – and also without people knowing it, Eunice Foote – onto the agenda. By the late 50s, enough people were pretty clear that there could very well be trouble ahead. And here we are, in trouble. Oh, well. 

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.

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: 

October 15, 1971 – “Man’s Impact on the Climate” published – All Our Yesterdays

October 15, 1985 – Villach meeting supercharges greenhouse concerns… – All Our Yesterdays

October 15, 1999- Australian economy headed for trouble because of carbon dioxide emissions, admits government through gritted teeth.