Thirty-seven years ago, on this day, August 26th,1989,
“Top Soviet and American scientists, environmentalists, policymakers, industry leaders and artists today urged President Bush and President Mikhail S. Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to form an “environmental security alliance” to reverse what they fear could be a catastrophic warming of the planet.”
“The gathering urged that the superpowers promote energy-efficient technology and phase out production and use of clorofluorocarbons no later than the year 2000. The group said the countries should “substantially reduce” carbon dioxide emissions, reduce the loss of forests and promote tree planting world wide. Participants asked that the two leaders appeal directly to their citizens to help.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 353ppm. 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 Soviet scientists had been talking about carbon dioxide build-up for as long as American ones, pretty much (it’s only 19th century physics, after all).
The specific context was that Gorbachev had taken over the boss job in 1985, and his “pereistroika” and “glasnost” quickly ran up against various awkward realities around the culture the Bolsheviks had created, the lagging behind the US etc (so much for “we will bury you”). He was also spectacularly unlucky – Chernobyl basically killed it all off, though the whole thing staggered on for a few more years. Anyway, in 1988 the Soviet top diplomat had been suggesting a kind of one world Eco-government body. That did not fly, obvs.
What I think we can learn from this is that the scientists knew what was at stake, how quickly action needed to happen.
What happened next – in the second half of 1991, the Soviet Union finally disintegrated, gone like a fist when you open your palm.
Meanwhile, the problem of carbon dioxide emissions (it’s broader than that, obvs) continued to grow…
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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References
Reinhold, R. 1989. Summit of Sorts on Global Warming. New York Times, August 27.
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:
August 26, 1970 The Alkali Inspector’s report
August 26, 1973 – Sir Kingsley Dunham points out the C02 problem
August 26, 1991- We cannot delay says Brundtland