Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, died this weekend. In these moments, decent people set aside politics and offer reflections in a more civil way. President Carter was a humanitarian and a statesman who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. His contributions in the White House, within the Carter Center, and through his work with Habitat for Humanity will be viewed favorably through the lens of history. He also somewhat of a hidden legacy in the fight against climate change.
For context, scientists were sounding the alarm about climate change during the seventies. Oddly, a flawed narrative based mainly on one study and a popular magazine article fed a longstanding myth that scientists were predicting an ice age at the time. In 2008, scholars published, ”The Myth of the 1970s Global Cooling Consensus” in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The paper debunked the “they said it was going to be cooling” myth. Heck, even the writer of that infamous Newsweek article often cited by climate contrarians revisited the topic in 2014, and essentially concluded that he was wrong. Amazingly, you still hear people reference the “The Cooling World” today.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 21: A detail view of the installation “Climate Change Doesn’t Exist”, … [+] displaying a car hit and damaged by giant hailstones, on February 21, 2024 in Milan, Italy. The installation, according to the makers, Italian humanitarian organization Cesvi and Factanza media, is intended to challenge the indifference to climate change by showing the real tangible impact of extreme weather events, such as the intense hailstorms recently experienced in Milan. (Photo by Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)Getty ImagesPresident Carter was in the White House from 1977 to 1981. Less than a year into his tenure, President Carter’s chief science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Frank Press issued a jarring memo. According to an article published by The Guardian, the memo noted, “Fossil fuel combustion has increased at an exponential rate over the last 100 years…. Because of the “greenhouse effect” of atmospheric CO2 the increased concentration will induce a global climatic warming of anywhere from 0.5 to 5°C.” As noted by writer Emma Pattee, these findings were consistent with federal studies produced for the Johnson Administration in the previous decade.
Even prior to his term in the White House, President Carter was known for his concern about the environment. In the late 1960s, he helped establish the Georgia Conservancy. As Governor of Georgia, he spearheaded the Georgia Heritage Trust, which had the goal of protection and conservation by the State. During his early tenure in the White House, he had solar panels installed. He was also a strong proponent of conservation of river ecosystems and lands in Alaska.
US President Jimmy Carter speaks at a lectern on the roof of the W