Forty nine years ago, on this day, August 1, 1976, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory released a report titled “The Global Carbon Dioxide Problem.” The abstract is just a page – this leaps out
”estimates of the consequent warming … range from possibly acceptable to catastrophic.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 332ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that through the 1970s more and more scientists were looking at carbon dioxide levels and saying to themselves “yikes”…
The specific context was that the response to the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo had been the US announcing “Project Independence” – lots more coal and nuclear….
What I think we can learn from this is that we knew plenty, half a century ago. And here we are.
What happened next was that there was a push for the issue to be taken seriously. If Carter had got a second term, maybe. But that all ended with Desert One…
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.
References
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Also on this day:
August 1, 1980 – Wall Street Journal does excellent #climate reporting
August 1, 2015 – World Coal Association tries to say coal is lifting people out of poverty.
August 1, 2016 – Anti-wind idiots step on their own rake – All Our Yesterdays