Tag: 1946

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Nuclear Power United Nations

January 24, 1946 – UN resolution on Atomic Energy

Eighty years ago, on this day, January 24th, 1946,

The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 310ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that only one nation at that time had actual working nuclear weapons. Though, thanks to Russian scientists and Russian spies the Soviet Union would change that within a few years – “first we got the bomb, and that was good, because we love peace and motherhood.”

What I think we can learn from this  is that the roots of atomic energy are in all sorts of soil. 

And if you can’t face the horror of nuclear weapons, I suppose what you do is you gravitate towards the idea of “electricity too cheap to meter.” And atomic energy allows us to think of ourselves as  being incredibly ingenious, being masters of all we survey, cracking open the secrets of the universe. Blah blah.

Solar and wind are about vulnerability and about begging and taking what’s on offer… but I have digressed. 

What happened next

Commercial nuclear reactors, Windscale, various Soviet disasters, Three Mile Island, battles between nuclear and coal over who would have the power to power houses. And interestingly, by the mid late 1960s nuclear advocates were pointing to carbon dioxide emissions as an argument for rapid massive expansion of nuclear power.

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: 

January 24, 1967 – Senior British scientist says “by no means can (C02) report be dismissed as science fiction”…

January 24, 1984 – Canadian TV documentary and discussion about #climate 

January 24, 2017 – Climate activist is court in the act

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NotClimate United States of America

January 12, 1946 – “Friends of Frankie Fay” rally at Madison Square Garden #NotClimate

On this day, January 12, in 1946 Frankie Fay, a fascist asshole who had been the “first stand-up” held a rally of 10,000 fellow fascist asssholes.

And this AFTER the truth of what the Nazis had done was out there….

“… Actor’s Equity stood by Brooks, Darling, Malina and Osato. Rather than expel them from his union, Lytell censured Frank Fay for “conduct prejudicial to the association or its membership.”

…

In response to the censure, allies of Franco, members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi party organized a rally at Madison Square Garden in January 1946 called “The Friends of Frank Fay.” Speakers included Klan ally Joseph Scott, Nazi Laura Ingalls, publisher of anti-Semitic pamphlets John Geis, and the prolific Joseph P. Kamp, who had used the KKK’s mailing list to distribute his work about “Jewish influence” and America’s “Communist President” Franklin D. Roosevelt.

observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-friends-of-frank-fay.html

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at 310parts per million.

As of 2026 they are 428ppm at and rising rapidly. Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is …. the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was that the truth of the extermination camps and the industrialised murder of millions of Jewish people, Roma, and other “undesirables” was kinda hard to ignore in 1946. But never underestimate the fash, I guess.

Why care?

This stuff matters! We need to remember that there is nothing that cannot be denied/ignored/minimised if it gets between you and your a) money and b) sense of yourself as a Good Person.

(How) does it connect to climate change?

See above.

What happened next

The white supremacists took a series of defeats through the 50s-70s, but have come roaring back.

Fay died, unlamented, in 1961.

How does it help us understand the world?

That evil never goes away. It can be contained, on a good day.

How does it help us act in the world?

Xx

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

There’s a Kurt Vonnegut novel I should read again, about 1930s White Supremacists…

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

Wikipedia

Working Class History

Etc

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United States of America

January 9, 1946 – control the weather!!

Eighty years ago today…

“An important meeting took place in Washington, DC,on 9 January 1946. Convened by Francis Reichelderfer, the U.S. Weather Bureau’s Chief, it was supposed to be secret, but a detailed account of it appeared in the New York Times two days later!  There were a dozen meteorologists at the meeting, some of them military men, and there were two guests: John von Neumann, a mathematician from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and Vladimir Zworykin of RCA, who had invented the scanning television camera. They had come to explain their startling proposal, that the electronic digital computer planned by Neumann might be used to forecast and ultimately control the weather.”  

Walker History of Met Office p318

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 349ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that humans have always wanted to control the uncontrollable, for understandable reasons. Shamans, witch doctors, rain dances, ghost dances etc etc.

The specific context was  that after you split the atom and nuke 150,000 civilians with two bombs, what could stop you from controlling everything!

What I think we can learn from this – smart people often don’t understand that smarts will only get you so far. 

What happened next

They built their computer. March 5, 1950 – first computer simulation of the weather…

They tried (and failed) to control the weather. But long-term? They certainly succeeded in climate modification… 

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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United States of America Weather modification

November 13, 1946 – first human-made snowstorm

Seventy-eight years ago, on this day, November 13th, 1946,

On November 13, 1946 pilot Curtis Talbot, working for the General Electric Research Laboratory, climbed to an altitude of 14,000 feet about 30 miles east of Schenectady, New York. Talbot, along with scientist Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer, released three pounds of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) into the clouds. As they turned south, Dr. Schaefer noted, “I looked toward the rear and was thrilled to see long streamers of snow falling from the base of the cloud through which we had just passed. I shouted to Curt to swing around, and as we did so we passed through a mass of glistening snow crystals! Needless to say, we were quite excited.” They had created the world’s first human-made snowstorm.

Novak, 2011.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 310ppm. As of 2024 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was in the aftermath of World War Two it looked like we, as a species, would be able to do absolutely anything after all. We had just killed 200,000 of our own with two bombs. How powerful is that? 

What we learn is that weather modification was an integral part of post war Climate Science. You can’t separate it easily.

What happened next the dream of weather modification continued, until it bumped up against complexity and scale in the 60s and 70s.

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: 

November 13, 1963 – Ritchie Calder warns of trouble ahead because of carbon dioxide…

November 13, 1975 – climate testimony to House of Reps committee

November 13, 2008 – Coal industry tries to get some ‘love’