On this day in 1980 an international gathering of scientists took place in Villlach, Austria.
“The first major initiative to result from the establishment of the WCP was an international conference on climate change, held in Villach, Austria, from 17 to 22 November 1980. Under the chairmanship of Professor Bert Bolin of the University of Stockholm, the delegates issued a warning that the accumulation of greenhouse gases posed a great risk to the earth’s natural equilibria; they declared that the issue consequently had to be addressed with some urgency. Although their pronouncement drew some attention, its political impact was negligible.”
(Rowlands,1995: 71-2)
https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=3173
[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 338.7ppm. At time of writing it was 419ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]
Why this matters
This is part of the long slow growth of awareness and concern
What happened next.
One of the attendees was Australian scientist Graeme Pearman. Later that year, in September 1980, the Australian Academy of Science held a symposium about carbon dioxide build-up in Canberra.
In 1985 another Villach meeting set the international ball properly rolling, thanks to US Senators paying close attention…
And the emissions? Oh, they kept climbing. Of course they did. I mean, we didn’t stop burning the fossil fuels, did we?