Forty nine years ago, on this day, June 26th, 1975, an overconfident man was being over-confident. And fundamentally, dangerously, wrong.
Scorer, R. 1975 The danger of environmental jitters. New Scientist, June 26 p702- 703
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 331ppm. As of 2024 it is 426ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that environmental concerns were still bubbling along. The greenhouse issue was still bubbling along. None of it with the prominence in the public mind that it had a couple of years before. But still enough for sceptics, like Richard Scorer to do a standard “denounce the greenies for being hysterical, emotional, unscientific, irrational.” fear, this stuff writes itself. Scorer wasn’t alone in this of course – there was also John Maddox, John Mason et al.
What we learn is that the culture war must be fought, just pull the trigger to feel powerful, lay down some so-called suppressing fire at your enemies. Label them hysterical, ignore the arguments. Bish bosh.
What happened next – as late as 1987 Scorer was peddling the same tosh.
Scorer’s 1987 greenhouse denial in the Guardian letters page.
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:
June 26, 1986 – “our children will grow old in a world that fragmenting and disintegrating.”
June 26, 1988 – it’s SHOWTIME for climate…
June 26, 1991 “environment is not flavor of the month any more”