Category: United States of America

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United States of America

June 10, 1966 – Seaborg’s commencement address

Fifty nine years ago, on this day, June 10th, 1966, the head of the Atomic Energy Commission (hardly a hippie!) gave a commencement address that name-checked carbon dioxide build-up,

10 June 1966 

Seaborg commencement address at San Diego (see Maddow 2019, Blowout)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 321ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was the issue had been “lurking” in the newspapers (especially but not exclusively the US ones) since the early 1950s.  

The specific context was

By 1965 it had “broken through” – getting name-checked in the special message of LBJ to Congress about Natural Beauty/Pollution, and then getting a whole chapter in the big fat report released by the Presidents Scientific Advisory Council in late 1965.

What I think we can learn from this

As human beings we knew

As “active citizens” we knew

Academics might like to ponder – their role in helping people not know.

What happened next

By the late 1960s the carbon dioxide build-up problem was being used by proponents of nuclear (including Seaborg) as a point for them and against coal. Thee years to the day, in fact, there was an article in the New York Times…

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.

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: 

 June 10, 1969 – pro-nukers mention carbon dioxide in a New York Times article – All Our Yesterdays

June 10, 1986 – scientist tells US senators “global warming is inevitable. It is only a question of the magnitude and the timing.” – All Our Yesterdays

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Air Pollution United States of America

June 9, 1967 – New York Times reports on temperature drop…

Fifty seven years ago, on this day, June 9th, 1967,

“Temperature dip tied to particles,” New York Times, June 9.

 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 322ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that in the northern hemisphere, at least, temperatures had been dropping. We now know that that was because of all the extra aerosols sulphates in the air, bouncing a certain amount of the sun’s heat away. Keeping the winters nice and chill. And this seemed like a problem for the theory of carbon dioxide induced warming. It wasn’t but it’s still being held up as one.

What we learn is that it wasn’t crystal clear. People like Keeling and Plass would not deny. There was still uncertainty.

What happened next? There was for the next five years or so, the whole Ice/Heat debate. Things started edging towards the heat trap side. C02 buildup was reported in The Times as a cause of concern in 1972. And then, by the late 70s, it was clear what was going to happen. 

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 9, 1979 – Hermann Flohn warns Irish of “possible consequences of a man-made warming”

October 9, 1991 – Greens get labeled religious fanatics, don’t like it.

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United States of America

June 8, 1981- “the First Detection of Carbon Dioxide Effect” workshop begins

Forty four years ago, on this day, June 8th, 1981, a workshop began. What was it on? Well

“The First Detection of Carbon Dioxide Effects:” Workshop Summary 8-10 June 1981,

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26223159

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 340ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that from the mid-1970s onwards, scientists were beginning to look closely at what rising carbon dioxide levels would ultimately do.  Various scientific bodies (NCAR, National Academy of Science, AAAS, Swedish outfits) were looking closely.  The 1979 First World Climate Conference, hosted by the World Meteorological Organisation, could have set the ball rolling, but there was blockage from the likes of John Mason of the UK Met Office.

The specific context was that various American scientists were pushing ahead.

What I think we can learn from this

As human beings is that our systems for finding out about the world aren’t bad. Our systems for stopping damaging it, they needed some work.

As “active citizens” is that there’s not much mileage in just adding “more science” to the recipe for social change. We tried that. 

Academics might like to ponder their role in all this.

What happened next – The scientists kept science-ing.  By 1985 they were alarmed enough – and had credibility from ozone – to start shouting.

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.

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: 

June 8, 1973 – Australian Treasury dismisses carbon dioxide build-up. Yes, 1973.  – All Our Yesterdays

June 8, 1997 – US oil and gas versus Kyoto Protocol, planet – All Our Yesterdays

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United States of America

June 5, 1963  – JFK says yes to SST

62 years ago, on this day, June 5th, 1963, the administration of US President John F Kennedy,

“ announced a large-scale cooperative program between industry and government to build a commercial passenger aircraft that would travel faster than the speed of sound…. Over the course of the 1960s, however, Kennedy-era military-industrial aerospace projects fell out of favor with an increasingly skeptical public, and support for the SST waned.”

(Howe, 2014:45)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 319ppm. As of 2025 it is 4xxppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was the Cold War had almost gotten rather hot in October the previous year, and the generals wanted as many toys as they could get their hands on.

The specific context was the dreams of limitless power were still so very powerful – it would take defeat in Vietnam and a lot of “impact science” (not yet named so) for that to change – and really, it still hasn’t (Mars colonies, anyone?).

What I think we can learn from this is that while Kennedy was at the same time doing a certain amount of hand-wringing about “Conservation” things like SST, a Boeing dream in part, had a lot of weight. Politicians and their testeria eh?

What happened next  The SST – with its sonic boom and ozone implications became a VERY hot potato.  Eventually Congress imposed a moratorium (this was after Boeing had realised their blueprints were non-starters, and Concorde was having test flights). The Congress moratorium so enraged right-wingers that the Heritage Foundation (Project 2025 guys) got set up…

xxx

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: 

June 5, 1993 and 2011- let’s have a march for #climate… It will make us feel good. – All Our Yesterdays

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United States of America

June 2, 2005 – Climate change will not, in fact, be Terminated

On this day June 2nd, 2005, 20 years ago California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced an initiative to curb greenhouse gas emissions in California as a step towards addressing global warming. 

In his speech, the governor declared, “The debate is over. We know the science. We see the threat, and we know the time for action is now.”

–Arnold Schwarzenegger

San Francisco, June 2, 2005

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 380ppm.  As of 2025, 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 for this was the US had pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations in early 2001, despite George W Bush’s campaign trail promise that he would regulate carbon dioxide (the real president, Dick Cheney, had other ideas).

The specific context was when the Federal government flubs an issue, various states, often including California, tries to lead – you see similar dynamics in other federal systems (Australia, Germany, whatever).

Historical context – check out the defeat of Proposition 128 – “Big Green” in November 1990.

CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : PROPOSITION 128 : ‘Big Green’ Reached Too Far, Backers Say – Los Angeles Times

What I think we can learn is this: 

As human beings – celebrity is not transferable power, necessarily.

As “active citizens” – talk is cheap

Academics might want to ponder – the way policy is, well, terminated.

What happened next: 

The emissions kept rising. The concentrations kept rising. People elected a climate denier as President. Twice. So, there’s that.

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

Too many to mention

References

 (as academic as possible, with DOIs if they exist.) hyperlinks.

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: 

June 2, 1986 – US Senators get going on climate

June 2, 1989 – “James Hansen versus the World” – good article on actual #climate consensus let down by title

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United States of America

May 27, 1927 – Ford ceases to produce the Model-T

Ninety eight years ago, on this day, May 27th, 1927, the Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.

For more info, read this below from someone who has had a couple (cough, cough) of letters published in the pink’un.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 306ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the American economy was booming. Jazz Age, Prohibition, Gatsby etc etc.  Could the good times EVER end?

What I think we can learn from this is that the choices we are given – for “positional goods” – that allow us to demonstrate (to ourselves as much as others) our “individuality” and our “freedom” are, um corporate creations.

Is there something between this and dungeons like East Germany? I don’t know. Probably there was. But now? It’s not clear to me at all.

What happened next  The marketing of trivial differences to feed (and create) people’s insecurities was ramped up and up. The emissions went up. The concentrations went up. The Great Acceleration happened…

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: 

May 27, 1971 – Australia gets a Minister of the Environment 

May 27, 1973 – World Council of Churches wrings its hands

May 27, 1996 – Not just a river in Egypt – denial in #Australia, organised, ramifying…

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United States of America

May 26, 1978 – “Advisory Group on Climate” meeting

Forty eight years ago, on this day, May 26th, 1978,

ADVISORY GROUP ON CLIMATE MEETING, MAY 26, 1978 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 335ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was

Well, to quote from Joshua Howe

“In the mid-1970s, the largest and most inclusive of America’s science advocacy organizations, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), included climate change as a potential subject of focus as it began to consider new directions for the coming decade. In 1978, the AAAS convened an Advisory Group on Climate. The committee comprised researchers from a variety of disciplines associated with climate questions, including, among others, Roger Revelle, leading agronomist and later critic of consensus views on global warming Sylvan Wittwer, Robert White of the National Academy of Sciences Climate Research Board, Science editor-in-chief Philip Abelson, and California…”

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, and PAUL S. SUTTER. “ADVISORY GROUP ON CLIMATE MEETING, MAY 26, 1978.” Making Climate Change History: Documents from Global Warming’s Past, edited by JOSHUA P. HOWE, University of Washington Press, 2017, pp. 128–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnkd5.25. Accessed 15 May 2025.

What I think we can learn from this

It is almost fifty years since we had smart people sitting around nutting out the implications of this issue. That may give you pause to consider how that strategy has worked out, as strategies go…

What happened next

They produced their report. Other committees of Learned Gentlemen (and less frequently Gentlewomen)  produced reports. The reports piled up.

As per this article from The Onion.

The Time To Act Is Now,’ Says Yellowing Climate Change …

The Onion

https://theonion.com › Latest

1 Apr 2016 — ‘The Time To Act Is Now,’ Says Yellowing Climate Change Report Sitting In University Archive … The Onion. Privacy Polic

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: 

May 26, 1990 – Times front page about Thatcher going for stabilisation target – All Our Yesterdays

May 26, 1993 – more “green jobs” mush

May 26, 1994 – Australian #climate stance “will become increasingly devoid of substance” says Liberal politician. Oh yes

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United States of America

May 25, 1962- JFK speaks to a Conservation conference 

Sixty three years ago, on this day, May 25th, 1962, John Fitzgerald Kennedy took time away from shagging anything that moved and gave a speech –

Secretary Udall, Members of the Senate and the House, Governors, Secretary Stahr, ladies and gentlemen:

I am too late to welcome you to this Conference which has been going on now for 2 days, and I know that I am in no position to congratulate you upon completing the work because I think that this Conference is only a step forward in a long journey which began, fortunately, many years ago and which will continue throughout our lives.

Continues here

https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkwhp-1962-05-25-a#?image_identifier=JFKWHP-AR7268-C

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 318ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that various people “in the know” were getting nervous about the impacts of technology and growth (population, consumerism). There’d been various spills, clearcutting etc. The Conservation Foundation was producing reports etc etc. I don’t know if anyone had seen Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which was about to appear in three issues of the New Yorker.

What I think we can learn from this is that, as per Sven Lindqvist, it is not knowledge we lack, but courage.

What happened next

JFK asked for – and got – a report on Carson’s book.

The climate stuff was just then coming onto the radar.  Within a couple of years, Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, would include mention of it in his special message to Congress on pollution.

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: 

May 25, 1953 – “I read about them in Time Magazine” (Gilbert Plass’s greenhouse warning

May 25, 1990 – Thatcher opens Hadley Centre

May 25, 1992 Keating Cabinet discusses Rio – All Our Yesterdays

May 25 – Interview with Ben King – of #climate, education and the need for tubas

May 25, 2011 – Aussie #climate scientist smeared rather than engaged. Plus ca change…

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United States of America

May 20, 1970 – NUC Symposium on Environmental Preservation

Fifty five years ago, on this day, May 20th, 1970, the Navy Undersea Research and Development Centre (NUC) held a symposium…

“If the greenhouse effect manifests itself as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels, there is little doubt that it would be catastrophic.”

NUC Symposium on Environmental Preservation, 20-21 May, 1970 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822031466642&view=1up&seq=7&skin=2021&q1=greenhouse

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 325ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the carbon dioxide build-up issue had been steadily growing, especially since the 1965 message to Congress by Lyndon Johnson and the report at the end of the same year by the PSAC.

What I think we can learn from this is that by 1970, carbon dioxide as an issue to keep a serious eye on was becoming embedded in scientific circles. What a species we are.

What happened next.  By the late 1970s the significant uncertainties were gone. But the elite politicians did not act. In 1988 the issue broke through.

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: 

May 20, 1959 Times of India letter about Teller and CO2 – All Our Yesterdays

May 20, 1960 – Spengler suggests decline of the … whole shebang

May 20, 1976 – UK World Trends committee chair worries about the weather… – All Our Yesterdays

May 20, 1977 – Australian Prime Minister says “coal, not solar” is the future

May 20, 1990 – “Ironing out the Greenhouse Effect”

May 20, 2010 – climategate keeps delivering for denialist

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United States of America

May 17, 1969 – Ritchie Calder gives a speech

Fifty six years ago, on this day, May 17th, 1969, Lord Ritchie Calder makes his warning again…

“Degradation of the Environment at Centre for Continuing Education, University of Chicago, 15-17th May 1969”

“With this combination fish are migrating, changing even their latitudes. On land the snow-line is retreating, the permafrost line in Siberia as well as in the Western Hemisphere is being altered and the glaciers are melting. In Scandinavia, land which was perennially under snow and ice are melting and the arrow heads of over 1,000 years ago when the black earth was last exposed have been found. I am advising all my friends in Britain not to take 99 year leases on properties at present sea-level.”

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 324ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that Ritchie Calder had known about CO2 build-up from 1954 at the latest (possibly earlier). He had warned and warned and warned (see 1963 activities). By 1968 he had become quite apocalyptic – see his Presidential Address to the Conservation Society. 

What I think we can learn from this is that smart people knew. But as per Schiller “against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain”.

What happened next Calder warned and warned (see his “Mortgaging the Old Homestead,” article and his 1975 interview on The Science Show). His son Nigel made a documentary that basically warned of a new Ice Age (The Weather Machine). Calder died in 1982, before the world “woke up”…

xxx

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: 

May 17, 1968 – “Some prophets of darkness warn of polar icecaps melting…”

May 17, 1972 – New York Times reports carbon dioxide build-up worries…

May 17, 1979 – Martin Holdgate’s A Perspective on Environmental Pollution” published – All Our Yesterdays