Today is a 50th anniversary that few people remember. It was 50 years ago today that President Lyndon Johnson gave a special address to Congress warning about the environmental risks of excessive carbon dioxide from fossil fuels. It is believed that this is the first time that a US President mentioned the risks of excess carbon dioxide in a public speech.
“Air pollution is no longer confined to isolated places,” said Johnson less than three weeks after his 1965 inauguration. “This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”
Later that year Johnson’s Science Advisory Panel provided a forecast of the future growth of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere which proved very accurate compared to the values that have been actually observed.
You can read the full story at https://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2015/02/president-johnson-carbon-climate-warning.
