Fifty five years ago, on this day, September 26th, 1970, the Medical Journal of Australia runs an article on “Notes on Some Aspects of Pollution”.
“The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere has increased by 14% since 1960. If it continues to build up at anything like that rate, it could, by the end of the century, form a blanket around the earth, raising the temperature appreciably, turning the tropics into hothouses, making the temperate zones tropical, and beginning to melt the polar ice caps. If the trend continued until the ice caps were completely melted, all maritime cities would be drowned, and the surf that now beats on Bondi beach would be beating on the lower slopes of the Blue Mountains.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 325ppm. 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 was that there was a global ecological awareness/concern springing up.
The specific context was from late 1969 carbon dioxide build up was mentioned among all the other dangers facing us. It had been on ABC radio in September 1969, and was popping up in articles like these.
What I think we can learn from this is that we’ve had warnings about carbon dioxide build-up for a lot longer than most people realise.
What happened next: The warnings were, of course, ignored. From 1988 onwards, there have been various games of kayfabe.
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:
September 26, 1969 – Death on All Fronts, says Allen Ginsberg – All Our Yesterdays
September 26, 1989 – Australian Union body tries to add green to red…
September 26, 1998 – Howard decision only to ratify Kyoto if US does leaks.
September 26, 2007 – GetUp spoof Howard’s climate greenwash – All Our Yesterdays