Forty six years ago, on this day, September 7th, 1980,
Energy for Our World: Energy supply – Google Books
Energy for Our World: Eleventh World Energy Conference, Munich, 7–12 September, 1980
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 338ppm. 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 that there had been World Energy Congresses for a while, because there’s policy to be planned, money to be made, hookers to be screwed, etc. After the 1973 oil shock, these questions of energy supply security had become more salient for rich nations, and you’d seen various organisations formed, most notably the International Energy Agency. By the 1980 World Energy Congress you start to see people turning up to talk about the possible problem of carbon dioxide build up.
The specific context was the second oil shock (after the Iranian revolution) was underway. The hostages were still there, and the Carter-Reagan election was coming up…
What I think we can learn from this is that climate and energy have been intimately related, even though energy is more than just climate, and climate is much, much, much more than energy, there is significant overlap on the Venn diagram.
What happened next All through the 80s, the climate scientists were getting more sure. They were speaking up, they were not being listened to, but finally in 1988 the problem became an issue.
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.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
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:
September 7, 1927 – television, the drug of a nation, first cultivated
September 7, 1936 – The Anthropocene does for the Thylacine…
September 7, 1977 – #climate scientist Stephen Schneider on Carson for the last time…
September 7, 1988 – media looking for more alarmist scientists…
September 7, 2005 – “rule out nuclear” say Aussie green outfits.