Fifty four years ago, on this day, May 18th, 1972, Wayland Kennet (the greenest of Labour types) holds forth on ‘ecology’,
“All ears are ringing with the eschatological buccinae of Ehrlich, Commoner, Meadows et al.”
Since you ask,, a buccina was “A brass instrument that was used in the ancient Roman army, [1] similar to the cornu. An aeneator who blew a buccina was called a “buccinator” or “bucinator”.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 327ppm. As of 2026 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that Kennet had been switched on for a while, and had been an effective minister in the Housing and Local Government department, which is where ‘environment’ ‘sat’ before the coming of the Department of Environment. Kennet also, pretty much single-handedly, wrote the first Environment White Paper, in May 1970.
The specific context was that the Stockholm conference was coming. Ehrlich and Commoner had visited the UK repeatedly and the Limits to Growth people had released their report. The Stockholm conference was impending. Buccinae, as Kennet says…
What I think we can learn from this. There was a moment of alarm, half a century ago. There might have been time to act. It certainly WAS the time to act. But, well, oh well…
What happened next. These spasms last three years or so. That’s about as much reality as anyone wants to face. Then, in 1973, thanks to war in the Middle East, oil prices went through the roof and the environment stuff was shunted aside…. Oh how times change.
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:
May 18, 1953 – Newsweek covers climate change. Yes, 1953.
May 18, 1976 – US congress begins hearings on #climate
May 18, 2006- Denialist nutjobs do denialist nutjobbery. Again.
May 18, 2011- Malcolm Turnbull disses “direct action” on Lateline