With Jimmy Carter's passing much praise has been heaped on his legacy. Much well deserved. One item of note is his elevation to the status of "climate warrior" because he had solar panels installed on the White House. Which he did. He also championed (beltway-speak for "spent money on") solar energy research, with quite a few GT-EES researchers on the job market when Reagan took office. But was he really a climate warrior? Did he know something? Yes he did. But so did most of his predecessors and all who came after. How did this happen?
A good place to start is around 200 years ago. That's right, the 1820's. This is when Fourier, better known for his transform, theorized about a process we now call the greenhouse effect. This became more concrete in the 1850's when a scientist determined, empirically, that CO2 and moisture had just the heat retention effect that Fourier predicted. These results were presented in the U.S., but roundly ignored in Europe. This particular scientist had three crippling qualities: she was female; she was an amateur; and she was American. Not until several years later, when her results were reproduced by a European male did this become generally accepted. So, before the United States was 100 years old.
To be fair, at this point in time, most inquiry regarded where we were in the current Ice Age and where that was headed. Yes, we are still in an Ice Age. This was Tyndall's line of investigation in 1859 with a focus on identifying the specific gases involved in atmospheric heat retention. This was after Foote's work and she was never credited and yet he identified the same gas as she. In 1896, Arrhenius, a Swede, create the first of what we would now call a "climate model," which estimated our current global temperature rise with frightening accuracy.
So. For well over 125 years we've known. Well, at least the best and brightest have. You know, like our scientists and world leaders. Creme de la creme. Teddy Roosevelt knew. So did Franklin. And Churchill. And Kennedy, who preferred a man on the moon over a stable climate. And Johnson. And Reagan. Eisenhower. Obama. Yes, even Jimmy Carter. They all knew. They all had other things on their to-do lists.
Was there anything they could do? No, there really wasn't. So, has there really been a climate crisis? Not according to Mirriam-Webster, who defines a crisis as an inflection point, where some action, some change is imminent. Things are indeed happening, but immediacy is not part of the conversation. Probably because there isn't much we can, and even less that we will, do. Not anything that will make a significant impact. Now that the issue has become a political bludgeon all that will happen is folks will beat their opponents over the head while spouting copious hot air.
Now we all know.
Posts
