Seventy two years ago, on this day, November 1st, 1953,
“The year was 1953. Humanity was venting 6.65bn tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, of which Australia contributed 59.43m tonnes, and the very first hole drilled struck oil at a depth of 1100m. Temperatures had risen to 38C in the open air that day and it was 1pm in the afternoon on 1 November 1953 when it happened. The roughnecks working on the rig had stripped back to stay cool in the hot afternoon sun. Earlier in the morning they had run a test and it had taken them about an hour to raise, disconnect and stack each 30m section of pipe. It was heavy, time-consuming work, so no one noticed it at first. When they were done, someone found the floor of the rig was awash with a hot, waxy, kerosene-smelling, green-brown oil. Their find made geological history and William Walkley would go down a legend.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 312ppm. 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 the second world war led to astonishing advances in transportation, ways of seeing (sonar, radar etc) in all sorts of “production sciences”. Meanwhile, Australia’s elites were desperately looking for supplies of oil, in case of another (non-atomic) war…
The specific context was that Australia was in a hot war (Korea) and keen to find its own sources of energy.
What I think we can learn from this – is that Royce writes well!
What happened next – you’ll need to read Royce’s book! Hint – those atmospheric concentrations kept going up and up.
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.
References
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Also on this day:
November 1, 1959 – M1 motorway section opened
November 1, 1974 – UK civil servants writing to each other on “Climatology”
November 1, 1975 – Stephen Schneider tries to clear up the “Carbon Dioxide Climate Confusion.”
November 1988 – Australian Mining Journal says C02 is a Good Thing
November 1, 1989 – Senior Australian politician talks on “Industry and Environment”
November 1, 1989 – “Greenhouse Action Australia” launches…
November 1, 2004 – Brilliant “Balance as Bias” article published