Forty four years ago, on this day, July 11st, 1982, Margaret Thatcher gets a briefing for a meeting with the British Antarctic Survey bosses. It casually mentions climatic change…
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 340ppm. As of 2026, 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 folks at the Met Office were present in late 1953 when Gilbert Plass gave another presentation about his carbon dioxide theory of climatic change. The theory was pretty well known in any case (having been pooh-poohed by CEP Brooks). Through the 50s and 60s it became better known. The trouble was, the Met Office’s boss from 1965 on, John Mason, was adamantly opposed to it. In the late 1970s there had been a civil service effort to get the issue under politician’s noses….
The specific context was that shortly after becoming Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher was briefed on the carbon dioxide threat by her chief scientific adviser. Her response was to look at him with incredulity and say “you want me to worry about the weather?” Nonetheless, international work continued, and the problem (not yet an issue) would not go away.
What I think we can learn from this Another reason to despise Thatcher.
What happened next
Mason retired as Met Office boss, and was replaced by John Houghton, who accepted physical reality (having first written on carbon dioxide build-up in 1965).
In late September 1988, to get ahead of an inevitable trend, Margaret Thatcher gave her speech at the Royal Society.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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.
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Also on this day:
July 12, 1953 – “The Weather is Really Changing” says New York Times
July 12, 1978 – US Climate Research Board meeting
July 12, 1996 – medics slam energy companies for outright denial and obstruction
July 12, 2007 – #Australia gets swindled on #climate change…