On this day, 14 July 2011 the “Four Degrees or More: Australia in a Hot World” conference in Melbourne” closed…
A sequel (the body count is always higher, the deaths more elaborate) to a 2009 scientific conference, it came as the fractious public debate about an emissions trading scheme (dubbed, brilliantly, “the great big tax on everything” by the wrecking ball disguised as an Opposition Leader that was Tony Abbott) was coming to a head.
The conference was briefly marred by some Lndon La Rouche nutjobs who brandished a noose and called Hans Joachim Schellnhuber a “Nazi.” Yeah, you keep being you, guys.
There’s an awe-inspiringly brilliant account of this conference in Nature Climate Change.
Why this matters.
We were warned. About the unthinkable. Before it arrived.
What happened next?
The emissions trading scheme became law. Briefly. Since its repeal, chaos.