Climate History of Carl Sagan

Photo caption: Carl Sagan speaking at Cornell University, ca. 1987 (photo credit: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0], via Wikimedia Commons, shared at https://theclimatehistorian.substack.com/p/sounding-the-climate-change-alarm).

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

I’m firmly of the opinion that if it is possible to reference or highlight the work of Carl Sagan, one should do that. 

This thoughtful piece by the Climate Historian brings together Sagan’s well known work in the public sharing of science, such as his series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage that aired on PBS in the early 1980s, with his work on climate change. In the 1960s and 70s Sagan had done detailed work on the atmosphere of Venus, which is hotter and denser than that of Earth, and raised strong concerns about what increases in greenhouse gas concentrations around Earth could mean for our planet. In 1985, Sagan gave testimony to the U.S. Senate about the dynamics of the greenhouse effect and anticipated consequences of its corresponding global warming. This was three years before the widely cited testimony of scientist James Hansen. 

One of the powers that history and historical archaeology gives us is capacity to explore relationships between actions of individuals and broader patterns over time. From our vantage point now in 2024, we know that fossil fuel preferences of the Reagan administration took priority. But I think it is helpful – and hopeful – that an eloquent scientist spoke of an alternate path those decades ago. Where we are now was not inevitable.

Sagan’s example also helps us to ask: who might speak in such a way for the social sciences and our ability to study being human? Arthur Clarke’s Civilization series and books of Jared Diamond, for example, have tried, but they have not become comparable voices of wisdom. What could an anthropological approach to Cosmos look like if we crafted it now? What could it help us to see and do?

Featured Link: https://theclimatehistorian.substack.com/p/sounding-the-climate-change-alarm

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.