Forty eight years ago, on this day, September 21st, 1978,
Draft Agreement between WMO and ICSU re: climate research programme
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 335ppm. 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 the World Meteorological Organisation had been beavering away on any number of issues, but a subgroup had in 1976 come out in favour of a warming world, because of carbon dioxide build up. This had been reported in the Times, and here we see the agreement for a kind of successor programme to the GARP in the lead up to and to be agreed at the first World Climate Conference to be held in Geneva in February of 1979.
The specific context was that the reports and conferences about carbon dioxide build-up were beginning to come quicker.
What I think we can learn from this is that the wheels of the bureaucracy go round and round, they grind very fine, but you’re not going to get big research programmes funded unless you do things like this, draft programmes, revised drafts, etc.
What happened next. The First World Climate Conference happened. It was not the pivotal moment it could have been. The problem did not become a public issue until 1988.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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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:
September 21, 1958, LA Times runs a Greenhouse Cartoon
September 21, 1990 – Stabilisation in 2005, says the UK
September 21, 1990 – Ministers call for Toronto Target to be federal policy …
September 21, 1993 – Manchester says “no, not hot air”. Yeah, right.
September 21, 2014 – big #climate march in New York. World saved.