Nineteen years ago, on this day, August 8th, 2007,
https://climateshift.com/newsweek-hoax.pdf
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 384ppm. 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 that the climate issue had exploded back into prominence in 2006 thanks to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the coming IPCC report, the Stern review, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, Climate Campers; take your pick. There’s always a bunch of factors for a window to open. There almost, by definition, has to be.
And the denial had sprung back into life as well, funded by outfits like Exxon. See the extraordinary letter in 2006 from the Royal Society.
What I think we can learn from this – the denialism was spotted as a Major Problem.
What happened next
Begley died too young – Sharon Begley – Wikipedia
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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References
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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.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
August 8, 1975 – first academic paper to use term “global warming” published
August 8, 1990 – Ministers meet, argue for Toronto Target
August 8, 1990 – ANZEC says “adopt Toronto target” of sharp carbon cuts.
August 8, 2006 – MIT Review on “Storing Carbon Dioxide under the Ocean”