Category: United States of America

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United States of America

April 21, 1971 – a forum on “Energy, Economic Growth and the Environment” in Washington DC.

Fifty five years ago, on this day, April 21st, 1971, a forum organised by “Resources for the Future” (by “the” they mean “rich white people with guns”),

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 326ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that MacDonald had been banging on about carbon dioxide for quite some time. Commoner knew what he was talking about. And Glenn Seaborg, as chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, had been aware of carbon dioxide build up for a long time. The first public statement that I’ve been able to find is his commencement address in 1966 at, I want to say UC San Diego, anyway, June ‘66 and there had been other similar announcements, I think he’s quoted in the New York Times in the late 60s. And here he is again on this question. 

Also, Fressoz, in “More and More and More” has a section on how much the nuclear guys knew from the early 1950s…

The specific context was that Earth Day has happened, and the Stockholm conference in June of ‘72 is on its way. And therefore everyone is scratching their head about energy and the environment and economic growth. 

 What I think we can learn from this is that we knew.

What happened next: the energy oil crisis of ‘73 basically put the kibosh on any questions about reducing fossil fuel usage, and here we are, 

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 21, 1977 – Australian Parliament debate on Uranium – C02 build up mentioned

April 21, 1992 – President Bush again threatens to boycott Earth Summit

April 21, 1993 – Bill Clinton says US will tackle carbon emissions.

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United States of America

April 20, 1970 – Recycling begins

Fifty six years ago, on this day, April 20th, 1970,

“The GCMI began with a pilot recycling program in Los Angeles, launched on April 20, 1970, just two days before the first Earth Day. It set up eight collection centers at glass-container manufacturing plants in the Los Angeles area and cultivated interest in the southern California media by inviting journalists and camera crews to opening day events and supplying prepackaged ideas for feature stories. Offering a penny per pound for used glass containers that were brought in, the GCMI spread word of the program to “churches, colleges, schools, youth groups, civic and service organizations, Garden Clubs, PTA’s, ecology clubs” and other organizations, inviting them to bring in bottles and jars for recycling.”

(Conley, 2006,: 96)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 325ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that Americans had a conserver culture sort of, kind of, sort of until the 50s. And then you see jeremiads by people like Vance Packard, (the Waste Makers etc). And there’s real concern about the ongoing despoilation of America, its natural beauty, blah, blah, blah. And also there’s the Malthusian fear that resources are running out, so rather than reduce resource use and share equitably, which, of course, would be Dictatorial Communism, we will instead have recycling to make everyone feel better about themselves. And so it came to pass.   

The specific context was that Earth Day was just about to happen.  Earth Day was, in fact, huge. 

What I think we can learn from this is that as per TS Eliot, we can only handle a little truth. 

What happened next:  Recycling became virtue signalling, a bit like ratifying the Kyoto Protocol or whatever, and acted as a kind of mitigation deterrence, or Meaningful Action. Deterrence, aka MAD. Oh, I like that Mutually Assured distraction – have to use that! 

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

Xxx

Also on this day: 

April 20, 1998 – National Academy of Sciences vs “Oregon petition” fraud

April 20, 2006 – David Cameron does “hug-a-husky” to detoxify the Conservative “brand”

April 20, 2009 – World has Six Years to Act, says Penny Sackett – All Our Yesterdays

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United States of America

April 18, 1990 – Bush’s delayed conference ends

On this day 36 years ago, April 18, 1990 President Bush’s conference finishes,

Shortly thereafter President Bush invited representatives of the 20 most influential countries in the world to a White House conference on science an economics research related to global change (17-18 April, 1990, in Washington). Even though the FAR would soon be completed and was intended to serve as the basis for negotiating a climate convention, no invitation to attend the conference was extended to the IPCC. I was surprised and sought an explanation through my contact in the USA (Dr Robert Corell) and I was soon thereafter invited to attend. For the first time I sensed that the IPCC messages might be disturbing the formulation of a US policy about these matters.

(Bolin, 2007: 59-60)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 354ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that Republican politicians, presidents and vice presidents, – looking at you, Reagan and Bush – had been ignoring carbon dioxide build up. There had been a real warning and a real opportunity to do something meaningful back when it was still possible in 1977-81. That opportunity was ignored. 

The specific context was that in 1988 George Bush, running for president and vulnerable on environment matters because he hadn’t done anything, (his Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis, who kind of sort of had), announced that people who were worried about the greenhouse effect were forgetting about the “White House effect”, and that if he were to be president, he (Bush) would in his first year in office, convene an International Meeting on what to do about it. Well, Bush had won the 1988 election handily, and then guess what, did not hold the International Conference. 

And when he did finally hold the international conference, he somehow, his people somehow “forgot” to invite the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Swedish scientist Bert Bolin. Funny that. 

What I think we can learn from this is that people like George Bush are hopefully rotting in hell for many reasons, climate change denial and obstruction being near the top of the list. 

What happened next:   Bolin died in 2007 having lived long enough to see the IPCC get the Nobel Peace Prize, and to have the hope that, who knows, maybe, in Copenhagen, in two years time, there would be a meaningful global deal, and there wasn’t.

See also

George Bush Sr could have got in on the ground floor of climate action – history would have thanked him

Also on this day

April 18, 1970 – Harold Wilson in York, bigging up UN, rights/obligations

April 18, 1989 – begging letter to world leaders sent

April 18, 2013, Liberal Party bullshit about “soil carbon” revealed to be bullshit

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United States of America

April 15, 2007 – climate change as force multiplier

Nineteen years ago, on this day, April 15th,

 CNA’s Military Advisory Board finds that climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability and poses a serious threat to America’s national security.

https://www.cna.org/analyses/2007/national-security-and-the-threat-of-climate-change

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 384ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that the idea that climate change would have profound geopolitical implications goes back to the late 50s. Then in 1980 you have William Barbat’s essay in “resource wars” in the CO2 newsletter.

The specific context was that the climate issue had broken through again because of Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth and the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, which had been published in February. The negotiations that were hotting up for a UNFCCC COP in Bali, at which “a roadmap to Copenhagen” (where everything would be sorted out) was to be agreed. These are the lies we tell ourselves.

What I think we can learn from this is that identifying a threat is one thing, doing anything about it is something else entirely. 

What happened next:  We went from Copenhagen to Paris to wherever the next “last chance to save the world” is supposed to be but I think actually, everyone’s kind of realised that the game is up. The cops will keep happening, sort of, but no one’s heart is in it.  

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 15, 1965 – Murray Bookchin warns about carbon dioxide build-up

April 15, 1969-  Coventry lecture – Mellanby says Air Pollution could cause flood… – All Our Yesterdays

April 15, 1974 – war criminal Henry Kissinger gives climate danger speech

April 15, 1974 – Kissinger cites climate concerns

Categories
Activism United States of America

April 14, 2018 – David Buckel’s climate-inspired suicide

Eight years ago, on this day, April 14th, 2018,

lawyer and environmental activist David Buckel burned himself to death in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in what has been called the first self-immolation in the name of climate change. 

The Self-Immolation of David Buckel: Towards a Postdramatic Activism

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 408ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that suicide as a political protest probably goes back a very very long way. The most famous 20th century example would be the Buddhist monks in Vietnam in 1963. There was a guy at the Pentagon in 1965 too.

The specific context was that it was clear from (at the absolute latest) the early 2000s that we were not, at a species level, going to take the steps necessary.

What I think we can learn from this is that we’re doomed.

What happened next:  The protest didn’t lead to the growth of the kind of mass movements, capable of outlasting repression, co-optation, exhaustion that we need. Or needed.  What we need now is a freaking time machine.

Vale David Buckel.

But this is not, in my opinion, the way forward. Suicide doesn’t build movements. If you need help, well, I don’t know what the numbers are in your country, but in the UK there’s the Samaritans. 

Also on this day: 

April 14, 1964 – RIP Rachel Carson

 April 14, 1980 – Carter’s scientist, Frank Press, pushes back against CEQ report – All Our Yesterdays

April 14th, 1989 – 24 US senators call for immediate unilateral climate action

Categories
Science United States of America

April 12,  1968 – brief mention of carbon dioxide build-up in Science

Fifty eight ago, on this day, April 12th, 1968,

12 April 1968. Brief mention of C02 build-up  Hibbard, W. R. (1968). Mineral Resources: Challenge or Threat?: Can technology meet our future needs for minerals and still preserve a livable environment? Science, 160(3824), 143–149. 

doi:10.1126/science.160.3824.143 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 323ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that by 1968 intelligent people involved in air pollution, atmospherics etc were well aware of carbon dioxide build up. It had been mentioned by Lyndon Johnson in the beginning of 1965 and in November 1965, the President’s Science Advisory Committee, PSAC had released a report Restoring the Quality of Our Environment, which had an entire chapter on CO2 build up. By 1967 in articles about air pollution in Time and Newsweek and so forth would have a paragraph on the topic.  

What I think we can learn from this is that by the late 60s, the dangers were understood. It was not clear if they  would  the potential dangers were understood. It was not clear that they would definitely emerge, if there were competing theories, but knowledge was there.  

What happened next:  We kept ignoring the problem. In 1988 it “broke through” and became an issue. But we mostly continued to ignore it.

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 12, 1955 – Coventry Evening Telegraph – “Melting Ice Could Menace the World” – All Our Yesterdays

April 12, 1992 – seminar asks “How sustainable is Australian Energy?” (proposes switch to gas)

April 12, 1993 – “environmental economics” gets a puff piece

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Activism United States of America

April 11, 2016 –  “Juliana versus US”

Ten years ago, on this day, April 11th, 2010,  

Pre-trial hearings were held in March 2016 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin. The U.S. Department of Justice argued that there was “no constitutional right to a pollution-free environment”, and that the court system was not the proper venue to affect such changes.[12] Coffin ruled in April  (11th) 2016 recommending that both motions to dismiss were denied; Coffin found that while the case was “unprecedented”, it had sufficient merit to continue.[13] 

https://mashable.com/2016/04/11/youth-climate-lawsuit/?europe=true

Juliana vs United States

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 404ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that activists have at various times, used laws to force corporations and governments to do things. 

The specific context was that  one of James Hansen’s granddaughters and a bunch of other people had launched a legal case Juliana versus the United States. 

What I think we can learn from this is that there’s no constitutional right to clean air, it turns out, anyway. 

What happened next:  They lost and Trump has removed the endangerment clause, so the EPA is free to do what the EPA wants to do, largely, which is ignore climate change. 

Also on this day: 

April 11th, 1987 – A matter of… Primo Levi’s death

 April 11, 1989 – “Ark” sinks its cred

April 11 – Interview with Sophie Gabrielle about memes vs Armageddon….

April 11, 2014 – Greenpeace China releases coal report – All Our Yesterdays

Categories
Academia United States of America

April 4, 1979 – DOE and AAS meeting

Forty seven years ago today, they’re half-way through what SHOULD have been a crucial meeting…

2-6  April Annapolis Maryland DOE and AAAS meeting on social science and climate.

CRIPSIN TICKELL PRESENT – see his October 1979 article in EUROPE

YOU HAVE DONE THIS ONE!!
April 4, 1979 – DOE and AAAS meet on social science and climate – All Our Yesterdays

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 336ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that since 1977 the Department of Energy had been hosting conferences, famously Miami Beach in March of 77 and commissioning reports about carbon dioxide build up. The Carter administration was “on it” as it were – or the Carter administration wasn’t, but people working in the DOE were. And I think a lot of this is probably down to a nuclear physicist called Alvin Weinberg. Anyway, here we are in April of 79 and the crucial things here are that 

  1. Tom Wigley of the Climatic Research Unit was present and presenting.

b) Crispin Tickell, then the consigliere for Roy Jenkins, was present at this meeting. We know this thanks to Tickell’s October 1979 article in Europe magazine.

The specific context was that by 1979 smart people were beginning to “freak out”, in a very measured and contained way.

What I think we can learn from this is that we have known for so long.  And done so little (well, made the whole shituation much worse).  

What happened next:  

Nature ran an editorial in May 1979 that namechecked this conference. The DOE asked people like Schelling to do a report on the societal implications that was released in early 1980 and whatever progress was being made towards tackling the carbon dioxide problem was halted with the coming of the Ronald Reagan gang in January of 1981 and here we are completely fine. Fuck. Risk. 

Also on this day

April 4, 1964 – Revelle’s PSAC Working Group Five

April 4, 1957 – New Scientist runs story on carbon dioxide build-up

April 4, 1964 – President Johnson’s Domestic Council on climate…

April 4, 1978 – UK Chief Scientific Advisor worries about atmospheric C02 build-up

April 4 – Interview with Ro Randal about “Living With Climate Crisis

Categories
Science Scientists United States of America

 1980 – Idiotic climate paper published in Science

Forty six years ago on this day, March 26th, 1980 a truly pathetic paper found its way into the pages of Science.

Idso, S. 1980 – The Climatological Significance of a Doubling of Earth’s Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration 

The abstract ran(t) as follows. [source]

The mean global increase in thermal radiation received at the surface of the earth as a consequence of a doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide content is calculated to be 2.28 watts per square meter. Multiplying this forcing function by the atmosphere’s surface air temperature response function, which has recently been determined by three independent experimental analyses to have a mean global value of 0.113 K per watt per square meter, yields a value of </= 0.26 K for the resultant change in the mean global surface air temperature. This result is about one order of magnitude less than those obtained from most theoretical numerical models, but it is virtually identical to the result of a fourth experimental approach to the problem described by Newell and Dopplick. There thus appears to be a major discrepancy between current theory and experiment relative to the effects of carbon dioxide on climate. Until this discrepancy is resolved, we should not be too quick to limit our options in the selection of future energy alternatives.

And a few weeks later, there was this exchange…

From ‘Effects of Carbon Dioxide Buildup in the Atmosphere’, Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, April 3, 1980:

“Senator (Dale) BUMPERS. . . The fact that there has been no political response to the testimony we have had here for at least 3 years, the last 3 years, about the potential for dramatic climatic effect upon the earth by the buildup of CO2 (the point that the whole problem is such a long term problem) is well taken.

“Congress has not responded and we are getting some conflicting information too. People who have testified have not been . . . precise and definitive. …

“For example, ‘Science magazine’ on March 28 estimated that the average Earth temperature rise from doubling the world’s atmospheric CO2 is about 26 hundredths of one degree Celsius, which is about 1 tenth of the value generally estimated.

“Dr. (Gordon) MACDONALD (Chief Scientist of MITRE Corporation). Could I comment on that point?

“Senator BUMPERS. Yes.

“Dr. MACDONALD.I have looked in detail at that paper. It is a very strange paper.

“Senator BUMPERS. Shall I throw it away?

“Dr. MACDONALD. Yes. The final result is the product of two numbers. One is described very badly. The other is described as a result of the search under preparation. One can reconstruct the reasoning and do the proper calculations, and would have to multiply the second number by a factor of six, the first number by a factor of two to get the proper description, so that number is off by a factor of about 12.

“Dr. (William) KELLOGG (Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research): I quite agree with what Dr. MacDonald has said. The conclusion is based on a calculation at the surface at a point. It does not apply to the global carbon dioxide question as it stands.

“Dr. MACDONALD. That is correct.”

(Quoted in William Barbat’s wonderful CO2 Newsletter.)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 338ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that there are always scientists who need to be “edgy”. And that is fine, because science needs doubt, conflict etc.  But it has to be, you know, robust. Not demented.

The specific context was that Idso had form

What I think we can learn from this is that Idso was not the sharpest tool in the box. 

What happened next. Idso kept Idsoing. He’s dead now, which is a tragedy for climate science.

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

Barbat in CO2 Newsletter

Also on this day: 

 March 28, 2001 – (Vice) President George Bush nixes Kyoto

March 28, 2010 – protestors block Newcastle coal terminal #auspol

March 28, 2017 – Heartland Institute spamming science teachers

March 28, 2017 – Trump “brings back coal”

Categories
Energy United States of America

March 28,  1984 – Exxon guy presents on CO2

Forty two years ago, on this day, March 28th, 1984, an Exxon scientist presented on climate change. 

They knew. Exxon knew.


March 28 1984  Exxon guy – Henry Shaw, Presentation to EUSA/ER&E Environmental Conference: CO2 Greenhouse and Climate Issues

7, 14 (Mar. 28, 1984), https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6530733-1984-Exxon-Henry-ShawPresentation-CO2/. 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 345ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that Exxon, by the late 70s, was fully switched on to the problem of carbon dioxide build up, and had allowed its tankers to be used to collect samples. Exxon knew, in other words, this is one of the last public or semi public discussions of CO2 that Exxon would do without casting doubt and denial, which began in ‘88. 

What I think we can learn from this is that well Exxon kept on knowing but the weather changed within the C suite, and they basically decided denial was their friend for their business model.

What happened next

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

Xxx

Also on this day: 

 March 28, 2001 – (Vice) President George Bush nixes Kyoto

March 28, 2010 – protestors block Newcastle coal terminal #auspol

March 28, 2017 – Heartland Institute spamming science teachers

March 28, 2017 – Trump “brings back coal”