Thirty five and thirty four years ago, on this day, March 23rd, 1991/2,
“Climate change and policy change : the nexus” World Meteorological Day address 1991 / by Sir Ninian Stephen
And one by Barry Jones too, dropping truth bombs.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 355/6ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was this was World Meteorological Day – I don’t know if this is still commemorated or celebrated. The climate issue had exploded in 1988 and by now people were probably getting a bit of fatigue, attention fatigue. Ninian Stephen had been appointed ambassador on the environment after a scandal of him as Governor General,
Barry Jones had been Minister of Science from 1983 to 1990 and had done a brilliant job, even though he was not necessarily well-liked, but that’s not important. And they both gave speeches.
What I think we can learn from this is that the attempt to “embed” climate issues, via things like World Meteorological Day, has, largely, failed. We don’t like to look at confronting facts. We turn away…
What happened next I don’t think World Meteorological day is really still much of a thing. The caravan has moved on.
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:
March 23, 1969 – US TV network CBS asks “What are we doing to our World?”
March 23, 1989 – cold fusion!!
March 23, 1993 – UK “The Prospects for Coal” White Paper published.