Forty five years ago, on this day, September 1st, 1980, Terry Hughes, glaciologist, submits The weak underbelly of the West Antarctic ice sheet” to Journal of Glaciology,
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 338ppm. 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 weak underbelly of the West Antarctic ice sheet | Journal of Glaciology | Cambridge Core
The broader context was that the melting of ice caps was one of the “indicators” for awareness of climate change.
The specific context was John Mercer’s article had come out in Nature in January 1978 .
What I think we can learn from this is that we had plenty of advanced warning.
What happened next – the emissions kept climbing. They were always going to climb a bit, but they are now 60% higher than they were in 1990, when we all agreed that Something Must Be Done.
See also the novel Icequake
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
Hughes TJ. The weak underbelly of the West Antarctic ice sheet. Journal of Glaciology. 1981;27(97):518-525. doi:10.3189/S002214300001159X
Also on this day:
September 1, 1970 – Environmentalism is an elite-diversion tactic, says American Maoist
September 1, 1972 – “Man-Made Carbon Dioxide and the “Greenhouse Effect” published in Nature
September 1, 1983- #climate change is all in the game, you feel me?
September 1, 1998 – Sydney Futures Exchange foresees a bright future. Ooops.