Fifty eight years ago, on this day, September 16th, 1968,
“Life on earth exists in a thin layer of soil, water and atmosphere near the surface of the planet. All parts of this sphere of live are intricately related, and knowledge about this subject has come belatedly to mankind…. THe growing study of environment is trying to determine in what extent man’s future may depend upon the continuance on earth of other species.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 323ppm. 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 consequences of industrialization on food chains, on the air quality, water quality, etc. had been becoming more apparent, in part thanks to books like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Murray Bookchin’s Cities in Crisis, and so forth.
In November 1965 there had been a pivotal report by the PSAC called Restoring the Quality. Of our Natural Environment
The reports about environmental damage were growing, and here we see a newspaper editorialising…
What we learn is that a sense of foreboding and concern was growing even in the late 60s, and again, as I’ve said elsewhere, a cynic might say that environmental concern is a way for people to criticise the American power elite without mentioning Vietnam, and therefore becoming one of the hated lily-livered weaklings, etc.
What happened next in January of 1969 the Santa Barbara oil spill really marked the beginning of the modern environment movement, and within all of that, awareness of carbon dioxide build-up as a problem was most definitely there in the mix, not just among the scientists and the hippies, but also government officials.
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:
September 16, 1969 – Aussies warned about carbon dioxide build-up by top scientist
September 16, 1994 – International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer
September 16, 2015 – Turns out big companies are ‘climate hypocrites’?