Thirty seven years ago, on this day, November 5th, 1989,
UK hinders moves to halt global warming
Geoffrey Lean and Jan Sinclair in the Observer
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 353ppm. 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 Margaret Thatcher had been briefed repeatedly on carbon dioxide build up, for example, 1979 and 1984 and had persistently and consistently said, I’m not interested, you want me to worry about the weather.
The specific context was that in the second half of 1988 Crispin Tickell finally convinced her it was a serious issue, and she could see the writing on the wall, and she performed one of her many turns, because the lady was indeed for turning. She gave a speech in September 1988 which really kick-started the whole climate issue, which was already underway – for example, the conference in Toronto. Thatcher was doing what politicians do, getting ahead of an issue that was already starting anyway. In May of 1989 President Bush was forced to change his tune and talk about, yes, the need for an actual carbon treaty. Here we see a few months later, the Energy Minister Baroness INSERT NAME had kiboshed the Toronto target.
What I think we can learn from this is that the UK is very good at talking the talk of justice, equality, fairness, etc. Slightly less good at walking the walk.
What happened next. The UK didn’t even put climate change on the literal agenda when it hosted the G7 in 1991 because this was going to offend President Bush. They are very much the “junior partner”, and they were the ones who negotiated the surrender of the pro targets and timetables people in 1992 ahead of the Earth Summit.
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.
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Also on this day:
60 years ago today, the first US government report to warn about climate change was published.
November 5, 1969 – House of Lords question about the greenhouse effect
November 5, 1992 – Jeremy Leggett calls Australian petrol price cuts “insane”
November 5, 1997 – Global Climate Coalition co-ordinates an anti-Kyoto conference