Tuesday, September 01, 2015

LBJ on Carbon Dioxide, 50 Years Ago

President Lyndon B. Johnson's
Special Message to the Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty
February 8, 1965

Johnson's remarks arose from a 1965 report to his Administration, “Restoring the Quality of Our Environment,” by the Environmental Pollution Panel of the President’s Science Advisory Committee, which had a chapter on CO2’s potential to cause warming.

A 1963 report by the Conservation Foundation, "Implications of Rising Carbon Dioxide Content of the Atmosphere," had warned that the doubling of CO2 projected for the next century could raise the world's temperature by 4°C. [Weart, p. 44].



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd always thought LBJ one of your underrated presidents - the Great Society, civil rights legislation etc. But honestly, in the context of Indochina (napalm, Agent Orange and all) this is a very ironic choice of quotation.

CJ said...

Let us not forget that it was the Republican successor to LBJ that created the EPA via Executive Order.

David Appell said...

Jarz: At least Nixon did one good thing. That was back when conservatives still had a heart that hadn't yet been eaten away by greed.

JBove said...

Nixon did it to dismantle the scientific committee and conceal some of his Vietnam stuff in the legislature. He then failed at all follow thru and made none of LBJs programs continue to work. NO, Nixon did nothing good!