Sixteen years ago, on this day, December 12, 2007, the important US climate scientist William Kellogg dies; as with Bert Bolin, very good timing both
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 384ppm. As of 2023 it is 421ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that William Kellogg had been thinking about the build up of C02 for a long time. His first major involvement was organising a 1971 “man’s impact on climate” symposium near Wick in Stockholm in 1971. He asked Stephen Schneider to be a kind of rapporteur. Kellogg also wrote one of the first good historical overview articles, Kellogg, William W. (1987). “Mankind’s Impact on Climate: The Evolution of an Awareness.” Climatic Change 10: 113–36.
He was smeared by Richard Lindzen, which gives you an idea that Kellogg is probably a decent guy.
What I think we can learn from this
The work of stitching together scientific coalitions and creating “epistemic communities” is hard work.
What happened next
Three weeks later Bert Bolin died – their timing was excellent, coming as it did at a time where – if you wanted to – you could believe that finally international progress would be made.
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..