Seventy-four years ago, on this day, May 15th, 1950, Time Magazine ran an article about, well, the world getting warmer. It begins as follows
Is the U.S. climate getting warmer? U.S. meteorologists, observing and charting the weather with growing exactitude over the past 20 years, are no closer to agreement on the question than their predecessors of a century ago. Last week a Washington convention of the American Meteorological Society heard strong evidence to favor the warmup theory.
“Getting Warmer?” Time Magazine (15 May 1950).
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 311ppm. As of 2024 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context is that it’s the postwar world. There’s always atom bombs going off. People are thinking it might heat things up/upset natural balances/humans now acting as Gods etc. Importantly, though, carbon dioxide is not mentioned in the story because it’s really 1953 that Gilbert Plass gives it plausibility or credibility. However, it should be noted that in 1948, the attendees of a seminar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference heard from G. Evelyn Hutchinson that yes, there was more CO2 in the atmosphere.
What we learned is that warming was acknowledged pretty early.
What happened next Three years later, Gilbert Plass named names (carbon dioxide).
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:
May 15, 2006 – Australian Prime Minister John Howard spouting “nuclear to fix climate” nonsense