Fifty six years ago, on this day, July 16th, 1970,
On July 16, 1970, Nixon aide John C. Whitaker received a set of documents from the newly created Council on Environmental Quality. One item specifically caught his attention. “Man’s Inadvertent Modification of Weather and Climate” presented what Whitaker called a “particularly hairy” problem: the capacity for humans to alter the long- term trajectory of the earth’s climate.2 https://www.worthingtoncaron.com/documents/Climate-Change-and-the-Clean-Air-Act-of-1970.pdf
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 325ppm. 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 Gilbert Plass, building on the work of Arrhenius and Callendar, had started raising the alarm in 1953. By 1965, Presidents (LBJ) were mouthing the pieties.
In the second half of the 1960s the possible dangers of carbon dioxide build-up became wide-spread.
The specific context was that soon after his inauguration Nixon was made to look weak/uncaring at the Santa Barbara oil spill. He then used environmental issues as a way of trying to get NATO to stop wanging on about the slaughter in Vietnam. By late 1969 you had people like Daniel Moynihan writing memos etc.
What I think we can learn from this – we have known plenty plenty plenty. PS the CEQ documents Whitaker was looking at were almost certainly written by/supplied by Gordon MacDonald.
What happened next
It took another 20 years (well, 18) before American politicians would be forced to pretend to care.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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References
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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.
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Also on this day:
July 16, 1989 – Paris agreement on climate…
July 16, 1989 – Paris Agreement….
July 16, 1990 – Canberra Times gives denialist tosh a platform