Sixty five years ago, on this day, October 7th, 1961,
“Changes of Climate symposium” Symposium on Changes of Climate with Special Reference to Arid Zones, World Meteorological Organization, Rome, 2-7 October 1961
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 317ppm. 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 modern theory of carbon dioxide build-up as a problem had been launched in May of 1953 by Gilbert Plas, building on the work of John Tyndall, Svante Argennius, and Guy Callender.
Meanwhile, the United Nations in the aftermath of World War Two had organised countless conferences and symposia about what the future would look like and what humans could do, and within those conferences, there would be symposia by involving various experts within a particular field, and here we see a symposium within the climate field.
The specific context was that this is just after JFK’s address to the United Nations General Assembly, and the push for action on weather modification, which at this time was still considered doable and good.
What I think we can learn from this is that at events like this, and also the IUGGs in Toronto and Helsinki in 1957 and 1960 respectively, and the New York Academy of Sciences symposium in January of 1961 a few people were beginning to look at carbon dioxide and say, “you know, this could get a little interesting.”
What happened next Well, it got a little interesting.
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:
October 7, 1967 – RIP Ruby Doris Smith Robinson – All Our Yesterdays
October 7, 2010 – Julia Gillard scraps the “Climate Assembly” idea – All Our Yesterdays