Category: Soviet Union

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International processes Soviet Union United States of America

October 28, 1968 – Los Angeles Times report on the possibility of an environment conference

Fifty seven years ago, on this day, October 28th, 1968

“Both the United States and the Soviet Union have privately expressed a strong interest in the project.

Foell, E. 1968. Sweden to Ask U.N. for World Pollution Talks: Parley in 1972 Urged . Los Angeles Times; October 28, pg. 28.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 323ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 425ppm. 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 Sweden had had its “environmental turn” in late 1967, and some Swedish diplomats had begun to push for the UN to hold a conference on the environment.

The specific context was that after lots of fancy footwork, and ultimate buy-in from the US and USSR (though they would later boycott it), the conference was about to get the go ahead.

What I think we can learn from this – Sweden punched above its weight for a while there.

What happened next – the conference took place in June 1972. Very few world leaders attended and the only really substantive thing to come out of it, afaik, was the creation of the United Nations Environment Program. UNEP and WMO co-sponsored, along with ICSU, various scientific meetings about the atmosphere and pollution, including the pivotal one in Villach, Austria in October 1985.

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.

Also on this day: 

October 28, 1956 – New York Times reports “Warmer Climate on the Earth May Be Due To More Carbon Dioxide in the Air” 

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Soviet Union

 April 26, 1986 – Chernobyl

Thirty years ago, on this day, April 26th, 1986 reactor four at Chernobyl went kaboom (partial meltdown).

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 347ppm. As of 2025 it is 427ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that this was precisely the wrong time for a nuclear reactor to explode, and the absolutely terrible response at the Politburo-downwards level versus the heroics on the ground, put the lie to “glasnost” and “perestroika”, and made Gorbachev’s efforts to change the Soviet economy and society that much more difficult. I mean, he was never going to succeed, but Chernobyl was, in retrospect, kind of a nail in the coffin. It also made the pro-nuclear because of greenhouse gas arguments that much harder to make.

What I think we can learn from this is that the intersections between politics, technology, economics, culture, you name it. They’re fantastically complicated, obviously or complex. And there are times when an accident wouldn’t matter that much. I would argue that Chernobyl was exquisitely timed, and so it came to pass.

What happened next

In September 1986 a Safe Energy rally in London was held – the anti-nuke sentiment grew…

The battles over whether Chernobyl caused hundreds of deaths, 1000s of deaths, 10s of 1000s of deaths goes on. 

The cultural response to Chernobyl is interesting. 

The Star Chernobyl by Julie Voznesakaya.

There is the Arkady Renko book. 

There is that bizarre Kenneth Royce book, Fallout. 

And there is the TV show Chernobyl, which I should watch sometime, 

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.

Also on this day: 

April 26, 1992 – Ros Kelly abjures a carbon tax – All Our Yesterdays

April 26, 1998 – New York Times front page expose on anti-climate action by industry

April 26, 1998 – “Industrial Group Plans to Battle Climate Treaty”

Categories
Soviet Union

July 15, 1972 – Soviet Weekly on how man affects the weather…

Fifty two years ago, on this day, July 15th, 1972, Soviet Weekly runs a piece based on comments by Mikhail Budyko, “How Man affects the weather.”

“In the past few decades the carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has risen by 1-15 per cent, and it is still rising.

“Most of it comes from the burning of 1,000 million tonnes of coal a year.

“C02 in the atmosphere lets through most short-wave radiation, but considerably reduces long-wave radiation which dissipates heat into space.

“So by the end of the century there could be an all-round rise in the temperature of the atmosphere at the earth’s surface of up to 1 degree.”

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 327ppm. As of 2024 it is 426ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the Soviet Union had been producing this colour newspaper Soviet Weekly, saying how wonderful things were in the Soviet Union for a while. I don’t know who it convinced – it probably merely kept some junior MI5 staff happy when clipping, archiving. And here they were talking about the weather and surprisingly given the Stockholm environment conference had just happened. And they hadn’t attended, because East Germany wasn’t going to be allowed separate status. 

What we learn is that if you were communist or commie-curious, in the early 70s in the UK, then carbon dioxide build-up would have been mentioned to you by Soviet Weekly and probably the Morning Star and Daily Worker and so forth. Everybody knew. 

 What happened next Soviet Weekly continued telling everyone that one life is wonderful in the Soviet Union until 1991, when the Soviet Union was no more. 

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.

References

For more about Budyko, and the probably “hook” for the Soviet Weekly article (besides the then-just-finished UNCHE), see here

A 50-Year-Old Global Warming Forecast That Still Holds Up

Also on this day: 

July 15, 1968 – first(?) UK government attention to the possibility of climate

July 15, 1977 – “Heavy Use of Coal May Bring Adverse Shift in Climate”

July 15, 2005 – The “Stern Review” into #climate is announced…