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.
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.
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Also on this day:
July 11, 1972 – Gay rights vs ABC
July 11, 1989 – Australia says “sure, we’ll take #climate refugees.” Yeah, nah.