Forty nine years ago, on this day, March 21st, 1977,
Workshop on the carbon cycle (1997:Ratzeburg Ger.) The global carbon cycle/workshop on the carbon cycle held at Ratzeburg, Federal Republic of Germany, 21-26 March 1977
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 333ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that from the late 60s, scientists had begun to take interest in what impact buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere might have. This was also the case in Germany, where people like Wilfred Bach and perhaps Herman Flohn were looking at it. And what do scientists do? They hold workshops. And so in the late 70s, you see these sorts of efforts. You also see the Department of Energy, or ERDA, as it then was, in the States, CSIRO in Australia, and Iasa, based in Austria, all looking at aspects of fossil fuel induced carbon dioxide build up.
The specific context was that the Miami Beach conference had happened a couple of weeks before and there were, I think, some overlapping attendees (probably Graeme Pearman, the Australian). And 5 months earlier there’d been a Dahlem conference…
What I think we can learn from this is that it is now basically 50 years since the scientists were pretty sure that there was serious trouble ahead.
What happened next More workshops, more conferences, the first world climate conference in 1979, the inability to get politicians to take it seriously, until 1988 when they were forced to take it publicly, but not necessarily seriously.
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:
March 21, 1768 – Joseph Fourier born
March 21, 1980 – chair of Statoil board acknowledges the “social cost” of the “CO2 problem”
March 21, 1994 – Yes to UNFCCC, yes to more coal-fired plants. Obviously. #auspol
March 21, 1994 – Singleton Council approves Redbank power station