Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, May 1957, a man by the name of Dr. Roger Ravelle testified before Congress to a subcommittee looking at geological issues.

He had given testimony the year before and was set to release a new paper all around his

theory, his observation, that the burning of fossil fuels was leading to an increase in

the Earth's temperature.

In his testimony, Ravel said, it is fairly easy to predict that the carbon dioxide content

of the atmosphere could easily increase

by about 20%. This might, in fact, make a considerable change in the climate.

He concluded, only God knows whether what I am saying is true or not. Of course, we now know

that what he said was true. We don't need God to prove it. Changes to the Earth

did in fact happen. Revelle's 20% increase was reached in 2004, and we right now, as we're

talking, have about a 30% increase in carbon dioxide content compared to when he spoke.

Now, the reason we want to highlight this story is not just because he was right, but because

he was so early. Obviously, the story of our climate highlight this story is not just because he was right, but because he was so early.

Obviously, the story of our climate catastrophe is one of the science being ignored and suppressed over the years, but I don't know if people have their heads around the fact that it has happened for so long.

So, let's talk about Dr. Ravel, his testimony and how it was received and lots more.

Here is always Nicole

Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there. Hello, Jody.

Hey there. And our special guest for this episode is Amy Westervelt, environmental writer and reporter

and host of the podcast Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. We're big fans of your work. Thank you. That's so nice to hear. Now, before I ask you who was Dr. Ravel and then we get into

the testimony, is this, is his testimony among environmental reporters, in your community? Is it kind of like

...