Forty six years ago, on this day, November 24th, 1979 an Anti Nuclear campaign launch – see two pager about this in the London Greenpeace
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 337ppm. 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 the 1970s saw a huge growth in anti-nuclear power movements.
The specific context was – Thatcher had come to power, and was as gung-ho for nuclear as her predecessors (because, well, there’s a permanent pro-nuclear establishment, isn’t there?).
What I think we can learn from this – smart people have been writing about the problems faced by social movements/NGOs for a long time, and we could do worse than listen and learn. But we won’t do that, because it requires time, access to materials, courage, curiosity and humility.
What happened next – the coalition didn’t really last, as I suspect many knew it wouldn’t.
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:
November 24, 1977 – Canberra Times reports “all coal” plan would “flood US cities”
November 24, 1992 – I’ve seen the future baby, it is murder (Cohen’s “The Future” released)
November 24, 2009 – the Climate War in Australia goes kinetic…