By: HISTORY.com Editors
Experts convene for one of the first federal climate change conferences
On October 29, 1980, two dozen experts meet at The Don CeSar hotel, a pink flashy beachside resort near St. Petersburg, Florida, to discuss the threats of climate change. Over three days, they spend hours debating potential solutions but cannot agree on a single specific idea to bring to Congress. The meeting, one of the first conferences held in the United States that aimed to contain climate change, ends in failure.
Prior to the conference, environmentalist Rafe Pomerance had been sounding the alarm with politicians about the dangers of climate change after discovering in an obscure Environmental Protection Agency report that burning coal heats the atmosphere. Pomerance’s lobbying helped instigate the creation of a 1979 report called “Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment,” headed by Jule Charney, a meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The authors warned about the consequences of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which causes temperatures to rise.
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It was only natural that Pomerance was at the 1980 conference designed to draft and vet policy proposals that could contain the growing environmental threat. Among the other attendees were moderator Tom Jorling, who helped write the Clean Air Act; David Rose, an MIT nuclear engineer; and David Slade of the U.S. Energy Department. Rose argued society moves too slowly to make a meaningful change. Slade didn’t support changes in environmental policy he knew Congress would reject. Ultimately, the conference failed when the attendees couldn’t come to an agreement on specific policy recommendations or even the wording of a statement.
More than four decades after the 1980 meeting in Florida, climate change remains a hot issue in Congress, and many lawmakers block legislation designed to combat it. Journalist Nathaniel Rich documented the conference as part of his 2019 book, Losing Earth: A Recent History. The meeting also inspired the 2026 film A Statement, starring Evan Peters, John Turturro and Paul Rudd.
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Citation Information
- Article Title
- Experts convene for one of the first federal climate change conferences
- Author
- HISTORY.com Editors
- Website Name
- History
- Date Accessed
- October 29, 2026
- Publisher
- A&E Television Networks
- Last Updated
- October 29, 2026
- Original Published Date
- October 29, 2026
