Thirty eight years ago, on this day, November 9th, 1987,
Senate hearings sponsored by Tim Wirth In November 1987 Colorado senator Tim Wirth had sponsored a hearing on climate in which Hansen had testified, but it had been widely ignored by the nation’s media establishment. Oreskes and Conway, 2010 Page 184 [Took place on November 9th, 1987]
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 349ppm. 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 from the mid-1960s there had been Senators (Democrat but also Republican) who took an interest in carbon dioxide build-up.
The specific context was that the October 1985 scientific meeting in Villach, Austria, had – in some countries (esp US and Australia) lent some urgency and power to scientists efforts to get politicians to push harder.
What I think we can learn from this – it can take ages for a problem to become an issue.
What happened next – the following year more hearings with Hansen took place, but this time during a heatwave and with an international conference about to take place in Toronto. That straw broke the camel’s back.
Wirth was Clinton’s climate emissary, and had some entertaining things to say about Australia’s stance in the run up to 1997’s Kyoto COP.
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:
November 9, 1988 – Tolba gives “Warming Warning” speech at first IPCC meeting
November 9, 1991 – Australian TV station SBS shows demented ‘”Greenhouse Conspiracy” ‘documentary’
November 9, 1992 – Ark sails on, Downunder – All Our Yesterdays
November 9, 2000 – Tyndall Centre launched
November 9, 2009 – Senior Liberal says CCS won’t work – All Our Yesterdays