Thread by @dwallacewells

"In 1974, the CIA produced a study on 'climatological research as it pertains to intelligence problems.' It warned of a new era of weird weather, leading to political unrest and mass migration (which, in turn, would cause more unrest)." (1/x) theguardian.com/science/2021/j…

This week, the Guardian has published an excerpt from the great @alicebell's new climate book OUR GREATEST EXPERIMENT. A thread.

“'The climate change began in 1960,' the report’s first page informs us, 'but no one, including the climatologists, recognized it.'"

"Crop failures in the Soviet Union and India in the early 1960s had been attributed to standard unlucky weather. The US shipped grain to India and the Soviets killed off livestock to eat, 'and premier Nikita Khrushchev was quietly deposed.'"

"But, the report argued, the world ignored this warning, as the population continued to grow and states made massive investments in energy, technology and medicine. Meanwhile, the weird weather rolled on, shifting to a collection of west African countries just below the Sahara."

"People in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad 'became the first victims of the climate change,' the report argued, but their suffering was masked by other struggles – or the richer parts of the world simply weren’t paying attention." 1974.

"As the effects of climate change started to spread to other parts of the world, the early 1970s saw reports of droughts, crop failures and floods from Burma, Pakistan, North Korea, Costa Rica, Honduras, Japan, Manila, Ecuador, USSR, China, India and the US."

"But few people seemed willing to see a pattern: 'The headlines from around the world told a story still not fully understood or one we don’t want to face,' the report said."

"This claim that no one was paying attention was not entirely fair. ... A few months before the CIA report was issued, the US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, had addressed the UN under a banner of applying science to 'the problems that science has helped to create...'"

"...including his worry that the poorest nations were now threatened with 'the possibility of climatic changes in the monsoon belt and perhaps throughout the world.'"

"By 1977, the problem was seen more through the lens of the oil crisis rather than overseas famine. As Americans felt the difficulties of unusual weather and oil shortage, the New York Times mused, perhaps this might unlock some change?"

"The paper reported that both energy and climate experts shared the hope 'that the current crisis is severe enough and close enough to home to encourage the interest and planning required to deal with these long-range issues before the problems get too much worse.'" (x/x)