Fifty six years ago, on this day, December 7, 1967, a Swedish television programme puts the seal on that year’s “environmental turn”
The book first entered the public sphere on 7 December through the weekly television programme Monitor. Most of the episode’s 25 minutes were devoted to the new book, and five of the contributors made an appearance in the broadcast. This extensive display on national television was an integral part of the marketing of the book, which was deliberately scheduled to hit the Swedish bookstores on the following day. The broadcast began with three words scrolling over the screen: world conflagration, world famine and world poisoning. This was followed by an array of photographs showing starving, suffering and dead children in Third World countries. The discomforting photographs were ironically accompanied by a sung version of Gud som haver barnen kär [God, who holds the children dear] – the best-known prayer for children in Sweden at the time.
This explicit opening sequence was followed by a talk by Georg Borgström on the topic of global injustices, malnutrition and overpopulation. Borgström was filmed sitting in a chair in his office with numerous books behind him. He was presented as a world authority and declared that we were on the verge of a monumental crisis. Borgström lamented that we were at the same time being surrounded by storytellers who forecasted an ever-brighter future of technological progress and material affluence. We cannot, Borgström emphasised, trust these storytellers. We must remove our blindfolds and face the facts, that we in the rich world not only have far more resources than the rest of the world, but also plunder their economies through world trade.
HEIDENBLAD
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 323ppm. As of 2023 it is 420ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that another book, by Hans Palmstierna had already come out in September 1967 (see link here).
What I think we can learn from this
Co-ordinated media blitzes can create/amplify social concern. We’ve seen it a bunch of times (Silent Spring etc).
What happened next
The most consequential consequence – Swedish diplomats started the work of getting the United Nations interested enough in the problems to say “yes” to an environment conference. This conference would ultimately take place – in Stockholm – in 1972.
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..