Thread by @Alex_Verbeek

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(1/21) On November 6, 1965, the U.S. agreed with Cuba to airlift Cubans to the United States.

In the next eight years, around 300,000 Cubans took advantage of this program and left for the country that had played a central role in its domestic politics for a long time. 🧵

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(2/21) On that very same day, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's science advisory committee sent him a report entitled Restoring the Quality of Our Environment. 

Summarized in one line: a warning that burning fossil fuels will change the climate.

#science #climatechange 🧵

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(3/21) Although the report correctly warned about the increase of carbon dioxide, it noted that it would take a few more years before climate models could reasonably project future global surface temperature changes.

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(4/21) They were right; nine years later, one of the report's authors presented a climate change model that turned out to be remarkably accurate by today's measurements.

#climatecrisis #science #history #environment #nature #climateaction

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(5/21) Of course, some essential aspects of climate change that we know of today were missing in the report, like the warming by other greenhouse gasses or the cooling by aerosol pollution, but these more or less leveled out each other's impacts.

#CO2 #carbon

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(6/21) Johnson had other things on his mind than the first climate change report on the desk of an American president.

November 1965 is the month of the U.S. forces' first major battle in Vietnam.

It was also the year of civil rights marches and anti-war protests.

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(7/21) Had Johnson put on the radio on that day, he would have heard America's number one single.

Starting with Charlie Watts' spectacular rhythm that was the spine of 'Get Off My Cloud,' while Mick Jagger sang about 'looking out the window, imagining the world has stopped.'

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(8/21) But the world didn't stop. American intervention didn't stop (only sometimes for good reasons), nor did anyone stop climate change (for no good reason).

Instead, the wheel of history started spinning faster and faster, a trend that hasn't stopped.

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(9/21) I could fill this page with exponentially growing graphs beginning in 1965: use of #resources, #production, #pollution, #population, #defense spending, or the number of fast-food restaurants in the city where you are living.

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(10/21) Those graphs lead to other exponential growing graphs, like greenhouse gas emissions or rising atmospheric temperatures and destruction by #extremeweather events.

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(11/21) Thirty years later, Jagger described the song as a post-teenage-alienation song; "the grown-up world was a very ordered society in the '60s, and I was coming out of it." And I guess we all joined. 

#MickJagger #CharlieWatts #RollingStones #sixtees

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(12/21) Today's main headline news covers the airlift from #Kabul and the hurricane #Ida, which is likely to have developed into a powerful CAT4 hurricane by the time it reaches the #Louisiana Gulf Coast on Sunday.

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(13/21) By then, it is likely to be still strengthening, which would make it a much more damaging storm at landfall than a weakening storm at similar wind speeds.

It is too early to tell how this one will end, but people in the area should urgently take measures.

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(14/21) I don't think history should guide us on predicting events on specific dates, but let's call it a reminder of past events that meteorologists expect Ida to make landfall precisely on the 16th anniversary of hurricane #Katrina.

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(15/21) The measures should, of course, be more structural than local preparedness in the days before a hurricane strikes. Scientists predict an increase of quickly intensifying storms as they approach landfall as a consequence of climate change.

#science #climateaction #Ida

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(16/21) If we don't collectively and efficiently tackle climate change, we will get more extreme weather, human suffering, and #inequality.

It is frustrating to know that scientists warned the president of the most powerful nation in the world more than half a century ago.

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(17/21) I suppose Johnson never read the report, presidents get a lot on their desks, and he had urgent news asking for this attention.

One of his predecessors, Eisenhower, knew all about the urgent and important principle.

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(18/21) Each president since (well, I can think of one exception), and every kid at school, understands the principle, but they all struggle to act upon it. The #climatecrisis is the perfect example.

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(19/21) As a last thought before I close, the report that Johnson received speaks in its final paragraph about a possible fix for climate change.

The report recommends further investigating:…

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(20/21)

'injection of condensation or freezing nuclei that will form cause cirrus clouds to form at high altitudes.'

It is an early reference to geo-engineering. To end with the words of Mick Jagger; he sang in that same week in early November 1965: ‘Get off my cloud.’

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(21/21) Wow, you made it this far!

Thank you 🙏

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