How the decade 1935 -1945 set the world on an exponential path toward climate change

The decade from 1935 to 1945 experienced some of the most profound Global perturbations that had been experienced for decades.

By Dorothea Lange. One of the greatest chroniclers of the human condition during the Great Depression in the US. When I think of those years, I think of her.

Precursor to WWII began in 1929 with the Wall Street crash and the ensuing “Great Depression”. Within months it had spread to Britain and Europe. Communism (Stalin), Nazism (Hitler)and Fascism(Mussolini) made large inroads to main-stream politics. The failure of the global financial infrastructure opened a vacuum that was filled by greed and aggression. In 1939 Germany, and the Nazis under Adolph Hitler, invaded Poland. Soon after in 1941 the Emperor of Japan gave accent to the invasion of the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The World’s infrastructure was turned upside down and after the end of the war in Europe (1944) and that in the Asia/Pacific (1945), humans were hungry for peace and “normality”. The two nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan (1945), ushered in not only the end of the Pacific war but the modern “nuclear age”.

This image (below) is the very essence of what socio-economic forces put us into the CO2 and Greenhouse Gas conundrum we are experiencing today.

The economic, social and energy transition, before and after 1945, in North America really exploded after the the War in Europe ended in May 1944 and that in the Pacific, September 1945. After the War, men (and women) returned from war. Many women aided the war effort by replacing men who were in the military services. After the war many women lost their factory jobs, but most importantly, people were ready to rebuild lives, e.g. attending college/university funded by the GI Bill (like my father), having a family, a steady job, house and a car, became goals for many.

Look again at the above graphic, huge changes were taking place. The reality was the exponential transition from rural to urban societies and the beginning of the end of actual horse-power rapidly replaced by fossil fuel power.

Source: a woman factory worker in Ft. Worth, Texas, 1940: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_home_front_during_World_War_II

We can see how the massive buildup for the WWII during the late 1930s into the 40s (below) pumped billions of tonnes of additional CO2 emissions from fossil fuel energy into the atmosphere leading to warmer ambient surface temperatures. Note however, about 1910 the Industrial Revolution begun in the mid-18th century (think coal) began having its real environmental impacts. That was followed by a steady positive trend to higher temperatures. In hindsight today, during WWII, we can see the first breaches made by temperature anomalies (aka deviations) greater than the long-term ambient surface temperature mean in the northern hemisphere.

source: https://www.uea.ac.uk/groups-and-centres/climatic-research-unit

It has been only 78 years since the end of WWII

The reader might view that number as an eternity, I assure you — — it is not! I’ve been most interested in trying to understand the drivers behind “climate change” and the transitions for which we must plan. It has been 35 years since the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Many around the world are still trying to decide how serious the evidence should be considered.

Each generation must ask this question: Did I/we act in a way to punish/jeopardize future generations? Of course not! For many of us, the future means our children and grandchildren, other family and friends. In fact, globally, that remains constant: I want all children, regardless their home country, to reach their best possible potential. Our global future survival depends upon humanity’s cumulative mental energy and creativity, particularly that in the coming generations.

Why my interpretation of the “age of fossil fuels” might differ from yours

My family, farmers and cattle people on both sides, grew up without electrical power delivered to their homes until the late 1930s. People used kerosene lamps (or oil lamps in other regions). People went to bed earlier than today. There might be some news from a radio around supper time (dinner was served at noon). The going prices for livestock and crops were often a week old, arriving from an old copy of the nearest daily. Both sides of my family “immigrated”, from the eastern forests of the US west to the High Plains of the southern Texas Panhandle, near the beginning of World War I (1914). Transportation and farming were done using real “horsepower”. Between 1900 and 1920 much of the native pasture had been replaced by what the cattlemen called “sodbusters” (farmers). Those two decades ushered in another transition from vast land and cattle companies (primarily British) to farmers who were breaking prairie sod; similar movements were taking place in western Canada where my Canadian family cleared farm land and broke sod. They were trying to capitalize on new opportunities but by the mid-1930s it was evident that destroying the native grasslands turned vast land areas prone to drought and dust storms: the “Dirty Thirties”, in Canada and the US.

This kind of image seen here is burned into my memory.

Texas dust storm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

Producing electrical power meant finding fuel to generate energy

The US Rural Electrification Agency ( REA) was passed in 1935 by executive order by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the midst of the “Great Depression”. Natural gas and coal were two of the most plentiful fuels used to produce electricity.

“The goal of the REA was to bring electricity to America’s rural areas. While cities had enjoyed electric power for many years, in 1935 “fewer than 11 of every 100 U.S. farms were receiving central station electric service.”

Just one of the many public service and improvement legislation passed during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four administrations: March 4, 1933 — April 12, 1945. FDR was the only US President given right to serve more than two terms.

Rural western Canada (my home for over 40 years), specially Alberta and Saskatchewan, were hampered in developing rural electrical power due to their small populations and remote communities. There was little government incentive for development until the 1940s.

It’s taken only 122 years to get addicted to fossil fuels

It was not until 1901 in southeast Texas, near Beaumont, that the modern petroleum industry was born. It began with a “gusher” named “Spindletop”.

Spindletop oil well, Beaumont, Texas 1901.

By 1902 an oilfield had been built. Drilling rigs were built in-place then, not trucked from location to another as done today. Unless you are forced to do it, never work on the drilling floor of an oil rig: I speak from a short, but memorable, experience while I should have been studying for high school exams.

“By 1902, there were more than 500 Texas corporations doing business in Beaumont. Many of the major oil companies were born at Spindletop or grew to major corporate size as a result of their involvement at Spindletop. The Texas Company (later Texaco), Gulf Oil Corporation, Sun Oil Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, and Humble (later Exxon Company, U.S.A.) were a few of the major corporations.”

The beginning of the oil boom in western Canada began in February 1947 at Leduc #1: Alberta, and more recently shale fields in southern Saskatchewan. The oil industry gained economical and political clout by controlling most of the domestic O&G industries in Canada. The growth grew similarly to what happened after “Spindletop” (1901) in Texas.

The 1930s also had some very positive compensating effects because of the huge amounts of hydro power commissioned in the Western US by Hoover and FDR

“Bonneville Dam Calls for Impressive Changes in Columbia Gorge,” the newspaper reported: “All eyes turn toward Bonneville, chosen site for a $31,000,000 dam for development of power and navigation in the mighty Columbia.” (1933): https://www.nwcouncil.org/reports/columbia-river-history/damshistory/#:~:text=Construction%20began%20at%20Grand%20Coulee,the%20Kootenai%2C%20both%20in%201975 . The Columbia River watershed extends from the foothills of the western Canadian Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, where it becomes the the boundary between Washington state and Oregon in the US. “Today there are 281 hydropower dams larger than one-tenth megawatt in size in the Columbia River Basin and about 200 more dams built for other purposes, such as irrigation and flood control. The prescient observation of The Oregonian in 1933, that the river would be transformed at the hands of man, came true.”

One of the most heavily developed and critical to >40 million people is the Colorado River watershed in the western US. There are seven states that rely upon its water, California being the largest population (~39 million). Drought and heavy drawdowns have created severe shortages. The US government gas gotten involved while trying to help negotiate changes to the demands among the seven states.

The perfect “ ménage à trois ”: fossil fuels, four lane highways and millions of cars

“The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. The system extends throughout the contiguous United States and has routes in Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.”

US Interstate Highway System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

The Interstate system was officially legislated and funded in 1956 under President Dwight Eisenhower and proclaimed complete in 1992. As a student I spent two summers as a labourer on a section of I-27 (old US highway 87). The development of an automobile industry led the way in the USA. The real exploitation of the national transportation system evolved rapidly in the US and particularly post-WWII. Since 1950 the number of miles driven and total vehicles have increased by 7 and 6 fold, respectively (below).

“In the six decades from 1950 to 2010, the U.S. population had increased from 157.8 million to 312.2 million, a total gain of 98% at an average annual rate of 1.1%.” https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/01/30/chapter-4-population-change-in-the-u-s-and-the-world-from-1950-to-2050/#:~:text=In%20the%20six%20decades%20from,average%20annual%20rate%20of%201.1%25.

In Canada, we have the “Trans-Canada” , Highway 1, from Victoria, BC to St. John Newfoundland-Labrador (7,476 km (4,645 mi).

Source: https://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/01/20180129-usvmt.html

1973–74: When the magic of the petroleum world began to change

In 1973–74 the Arab-Israeli war changed the world O&G (oil and gas) markets and many national policies, especially the US and Canada. Gasoline and diesel prices doubled overnight and customers experienced the first fuel shortages since WWII.

By 2021, this is how far we had come: not a lot has changed to-date in 2023.

This graphic needs no explanation.

Previously posted to Substack: https://lzed.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/135365237?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts

Thank you for reading my work. If you are in the mood, please give me a “clap”.

Zack Florence.