President Carter Archives - All Our Yesterdays

July 15, 1979 – Carter’s “malaise” speech

Forty eight years ago, on this day, July 11st, 1979,

“We will protect our environment. But when this Nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.”

1979 15 July – Carter’s Address to the Nation on Energy and National Goals: “The Malaise Speech”

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 336ppm. 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 from the mid-1960s US Presidents had been getting warnings about carbon dioxide build-up. It meant some nice speeches and reports, but not much else. Carter didn’t mention carbon dioxide build-up in his malaise speech – it would have been very cool if he had, but the politics of it would have been terrible.

The specific context was that Carter was putting his finger on something, for all the good it did him.

What I think we can learn from this – people cannot handle very much truth, now can they?

What happened next- those bastards stole the summer

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

References

There is a book about Carter’s malaise speech, its genesis, its reception and aftermath.

What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?’: Jimmy Carter, America’s “Malaise,” and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country

Revisiting Carter’s “Malaise” Speech

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:

July 15, 1968 – first(?) UK government attention to the possibility of climate change

July 15, 1972 – Soviet Weekly on how man affects the weather…

July 15, 1977 – “Heavy Use of Coal May Bring Adverse Shift in Climate”

July 15, 1988 – “Racing on Capitol Hill for Title of “Mr Greenhouse”

July 15, 1991 – RIP Roger Revelle

July 15, 1994 – ALP and BCA in good cop bad cop routine

July 15, 2005 – The “Stern Review” into #climate is announced…

July 11, 1979 – New York Times warns about carbon dioxide build-up

Forty seven years ago, on this day, July 11st, 1979,

WASHINGTON, July 10— In a report to the Council on Environmental Quality, a group of scientists warned today of the rapidly growing impact of carbon dioxide on the earth’s climate and asked that the problem be addressed in the formulation of new energy policy by President Carter.

The scientists warned that a major increase in the burning of fossil fuels, particularly synthetic fuels, could have a disastrous impact on the environment in the relatively near future.

“Man is setting in motion a series of events that seem certain to cause a significant warming of the world climate over the next decades unless mitigating steps are taken immediately,” the report declared.

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/07/11/archives/scientists-warn-us-of-carbon-dioxide-peril-advice-on-energy.html

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 337ppm. 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 in 1953 Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass had warned people about this. There were further warnings through the 1950s and 1960s. President Johnson name-checked carbon dioxide as a problem in 1965. Nixon was warned about it repeatedly.

The specific context was that the First World Climate Conference had happened. Meanwhile, the G7 had name-checked carbon dioxide build-up as a possible problem, e.gHelmut Schmidt, German Chancellor was talking about it. In the US, since 1977, a growing number of scientists had been meeting, comparing notes and warning. They were especially worried about the Carter Administration’s plans for the creation of oil from shale and coal.

What I think we can learn from this we knew enough to be taking action by 1979.

What happened next. We didn’t take action in 1979. Or 1989. Or 1999. Etc. Emissions have kept climbing when they should have fallen. Consequently, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have kept climbing (soaring), and now the Fafocene has begun. Oh well.

xxx

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:

July 11, 1968 – The UN Secretary-General, U Thant, delivers report on Human Environment that mentions carbon dioxide and climate change

July 11, 1972 – Gay rights vs ABC

July 11, 1989 – Australia says “sure, we’ll take #climate refugees.” Yeah, nah.

July 11, 1994 – Australian Environment Minister admits not clear if Australia hitting targets (spoilers, it wasn’t)

July 11, 1995 – Chicago heatwave gets going

July 11, 1996 – Celebrity Death Match: Australian fossil fuels industry versus The World (Spoiler: world lost)

July 11, 2013- “don’t be evil” my fat arse….