Sixty nine years ago, on this day, January 2nd 1955 John Stachel, writing in the Worker newspaper, mentioned C02 build up as a potential problem.
“Other experts look to the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere to explain why the earth holds more of the sun’s heat.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 313ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that two years previously Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass had set a cat among the pigeons, by pointing to carbon dioxide buildup as a likely cause of warming. Other people had already been saying that the world was warming, what Plass had done was provide one very plausible mechanism, building on work of Svante Arrhenius and British steam engineer Guy Callendar (with whom Plass corresponded).
What we can learn from this is that awareness of potential peril and long-term big changes was out and about in mainstream and far left circles. And of course, mainstream ideas draw on observations and insights from the margins, the extreme left and extreme right. Blah, blah, Overton Window, blah, blah.
What happened next? Well, the International Geophysical Year (1957-58) took place; lots of measurements. In March 1958 Charles Dave Keeling started to take his measurements, and the rest is history.
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
Also on this day:
January 2, 2008 – tiresome (but sound) “Green Fatigue” warning is made
.Jan 2, 2014- “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop,