Thirty six years ago, on this day, February 8th, 1988 there was a documentary about “the greenhouse effect”, a good seven months before Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did her u-turn and Big Speech at the Royal Society.
This documentary report by Horizon examines the devastating effects of the Greenhouse Effect (earth’s temperature rising) and how man is causing it.
S1988E06 The Greenhouse Effect
February 8, 1988 BBC Two
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 351ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that more and more people were getting wise to the climate issue. It was popping up in the media in scientific journals, et cetera. Etc. And it was exactly the kind of issue that prestige BBC documentary television needed to be making.
What we can learn from this is that Thatcher’s remarkable speech in September 27, 1988 looks less and less like prescient or like leadership, and more and more like scrambling to catch up ground that was getting away from her.
What happened next? In June of ‘88, American scientist James Hansen gave his famous testimony and the conference in Toronto, the changing climate happened. And the policy window properly opened.
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.
Also on this day:
Feb 8, 1965- All the way with LBJ – first President to say “carbon dioxide is building up”
February 8, 1973 – American ecologist explains carbon build-up to politicians