Fifty three years ago, on this day, October 2nd, 1973, the Adelaide News (now defunct) editorialises on ‘natural gas’ (methane).
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 328ppm. As of 2026, 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, South Australia was looking hungrily at oil and gas fields in the northern part of the state, and here we see a senior physicist, and by this time I think Governor General, wanting to sound the alarm, what we learn is that there were people capable of taking a systems approach. Oliphant, I think, was not that bothered by the carbon implications at this point, but more by the “all eggs in one basket”, question and wouldn’t long-term solar be better.
What I think we can learn from this – we used to have grown ups in positions of authority? Maybe? Or maybe rose tinted glasses are at play, idk.
What happened next Oliphant was of course ignored, as scientists have been ignored, and we have committed ourselves to fossil fuels in a big, big way, and the consequences are coming due.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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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If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
October 2, 1927/64 – Svante Arrhenius and Guy Callendar die. – All Our Yesterdays
October 2, 1942 – Spaceflight!! – All Our Yesterdays
October 2, 1961- UNESCO conference on “climatic variations” begins
October 2, 2014 – Low emission technologies on their way, says Minerals Council of Australia