Forty seven years ago, on this day, on January 10
“An ad hoc group of expert members of the EC (WMO Executive Committee) met in Cairo from 10 to 12 January 1978 to outline essential elements of a World Climate Programme (WCP), and this program was approved by the thirtieth meeting of the EC in May 1978.
(Cain, 1983: 83)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 335ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that that the WMO had, of course, been looking at carbon dioxide build up falongside or in front of the United Nations Environment Program, the folks at IIASA and others (though still in the 1970s the number of scientists working on C02 build-up could comfortably fit in a conference hall, I think).
And there was a push to have a world climate conference. I think it had already been agreed by the time that this meeting took place.
What I think we can learn from this is that the scientific wheels for international collaboration grind, necessarily, relatively slowly. Which gives all the more amazing kudos to the IPCC in its early days for getting that first report out In 1990 having only been agreed at the end of 1988.
What happened next is that the World Climate Program got going, and the first world climate conference happened in Geneva in February of 1979 and there was a lack of consensus around the dangers of CO2, in large part to John Mason, who had been digging his heels in on this issue for a decade and a half
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:
FILL THIS IS!!! WITH PREEXISTING BLOGS (You can do the links during deadtimes)