Sixty eight years ago, on this day, December 16th, 1957, there was a Meteorological Office discussion of Atmospheric Chemistry at the Royal Society of Arts.
And
“If carbon dioxide continued to be generated by human activities at the present rate, and if it all remained in the air, there would be a change in the world’s climate which within a few centuries might be disastrous.”
(see 1958 Meteorological Magazine)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 315ppm. 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 the Met Office has been around for yonks! The Royal Society of the Arts is somewhat older.
The specific context was that the International Geophysical Year was underway, with a lot of data analysis to come…
Even before the data was collected, however, there was knowledge that there might be trouble ahead.
NB John Sawyer was present (more on this later).
What I think we can learn from this – The IGY generated a lot of things to talk about!
What happened next
The Met Office didn’t start getting seriously interested in carbon dioxide until 1976…
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:
December 16, 1991 – European Energy Charter becomes a Thing
December 16, 2002 – another knee-capping for renewable energy in Australia…
December 16, 2004 – “2 degrees of warming to be a catastrophe”
December 16, 2008 – “The Australian” attacks on climate change