Forty seven years ago, on this day, July 11st, 1997, the Little Green Book (review here) got a shout out.
Birmingham Post 1979 07 20 p04 Little Green Book
“One of its great virtues is that it is only just over five inches by four and, though it is packed with information, it slips easily into the pocket or hand-bag.
It is sub-titled “An owner’s manual to the planet” and it has been produced by the editors of Vole magazine for The Green Alliance, formed last year by a group of environmentalists with the aim of ensuring “that the political priorities of the UK are determined with an ecological perspective.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was xxxppm. 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 there had been various groups and publications forming in the late 1960s early 1970s (The Ecologist, Our Environment, Friends of the Earth etc etc).
Vole was kinda interesting, and Ted Hughes, the poet, was heavily involved. You can see copies in the British Library.
What I think we can learn from this – “environmentalism’ has been with us for fifty years. It has not been able to do terribly much to slow down the race to extinction, either of other animals or of the hairless murder apes.
What happened next – Vole folded quite soon after this (1980?)
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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.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
July 20, 1989 – New “Ambassador for the Environment” role makes greenies happy
July 20, 1989 – Bob Hawke fumbles the green football…