Month: September 2022

Categories
Australia Ignored Warnings Science Scientists

September 15, 1980 – Australian scientists hold “Carbon Dioxide and Climate” symposium in Canberra

On this day, 15 September 1980, Australian scientists met in Canberra to discuss carbon dioxide and its build-up…

1980, 15 to 17 September, Carbon Dioxide and Climate – Australian Academy of Science symposium in Canberra

“In 1980, the Australian Academy of Science held a conference to review 20 years of measurements showing increasing carbon-dioxide levels, and by then there was an understanding that the greenhouse effect would result in climate change.”

Staples, J. 2009 page 2

And it got reported in the Canberra Times….

Categories
United Kingdom

September 14, 2004 – Blair “shocked” by scientists warnings – “time is running out for tackling climate change”

On September 14 2004, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair gave the usual sweeping soaring platitudes – see BBC report – not backed up by anything (see text here). But then, next year he was hosting the G7, and he needed something that didn’t involve dead Iraqis and missing “weapons of mass destruction”…

On this day the PPM was 377ish.  Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.

See Lorenzoni, I. and Benson, D. 2014. Radical institutional change in environmental governance: Explaining the origins of the UK Climate Change Act 2008 through discursive and streams perspectives.  Global Environmental Change, Vol. 29 pp.210-21)

Categories
Australia

“Greenhouse Effect worries?” That’s sooo 1989… Sept 14, 1991. #auspol

On this day, September 14, 1991 according to a later article by Ross Gittins (Australian economics journalist) published in the Australian “Good Weekend” supplement.

“Deirdre Macken produced much evidence from market research that public concern about the environment, and the public’s willingness to buy eco-friendly products, had subsided markedly since their surge in 1989.”

Turns out it was all a fad.

And the fad came and went, until finally, in about 2021, reality came a knocking so loud she could no longer be ignored, and the issue attention cycle was – sort of – overcome…

On this day the PPM was

Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

People care, but unless that care is harnessed, protected, nurtured, then the buying of stuff (and giving of speeches) decays quickly. And it is very very rare for care to be harnessed, protected, nurtured.

What happened next?

We kept on buying stuff, including the fine words of politicians, and never trying to see the truth.

Categories
Scientists

September 13, 1992/1994- Scientists traduced, ignored

On this day, September 13 1992, Roger Revelle’s daughter wrote an op-ed  about the way her father, ailing, had been exploited by climate denialists. (see also Oreskes and Conway 2010, page 195)

Contrary to George Will’s “Al Gore’s Green Guilt” {op-ed, Sept. 3} Roger Revelle – our father and the “father” of the greenhouse effect – remained deeply concerned about global warming until his death in July 1991. That same year he wrote: “The scientific base for a greenhouse warming is too uncertain to justify drastic action at this time.” Will and other critics of Sen. Al Gore have seized these words to suggest that Revelle, who was also Gore’s professor and mentor, renounced his belief in global warming.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

http://uscentrist.org/platform/positions/environment/context-environment/john_coleman/carolyn-revelle-what-my-father-really-said

On this day the PPM was 353.01 Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Exactly two years after this was published, Australian climate scientist Graeme Pearman was trying to educate ALP politicians about the facts of life (on earth)

It’s quite possible that the turning point in the debate over one of the key environmental issues facing the Keating Government came on an early spring afternoon in the Cabinet room when the Minister for the Environment, Senator John Faulkner, wasn’t even there.

Over 90 minutes on September 13, a world renowned atmospheric scientist [Dr Graeme Pearman] gave a rare briefing to Cabinet ministers on the extent of the great environmental dilemma of our age – the greenhouse gas phenomenon.

McLean, L. 1994. D Day in Gas debate. The Australian, December 5, p. 20.

On this day the PPM was 355.86 Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

“Every disaster movie starts with a scientist being ignored.”

And when scientists tell the truth, they must either be traduced or ignored.

What happened next?

Pearman finally retired in 2004. He has tried to educate folks. Australian political (and economic) leaders largely just did not want to know. And here we are.

Categories
United Kingdom

September 12, 1958 – Letter in The Times about … carbon dioxide build-up

On this day, September 12 1958, the Times newspaper carried a letter about … the build up of carbon dioxide…

As Hamblin, in his excellent “Arming Mother Nature,” notes

Peter Ball noted that “it is time that our school of meteorologists should take their heads out of the sand and, short of experiment or other definite proof to the contrary, give the benefit of the doubt to the worst possibility.” There might not be enough evidence to make the link, but equally so, there was not enough evidence to deny the possibility. Why take such a definitive stand? Ball pointed out that meteorologists already believed humans were having an effect on the climate. The slight warming in polar regions over the past century, he said, was undeniable, and it most likely was a result of humans burning up fossil fuels and releasing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Why was it so hard to accept that another human activity might have an effect as well?

(Hamblin, 2013: 124-5)

Peter Ball, letter to the Times, September 12 1958

On this day the PPM was 313.2

Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

We knew C02 was building up. We knew it might well have implications.

What happened next?

We sat on our thumbs.

Categories
United States of America

September 11, 1961 – New York Times reports “Air Found Gaining in Carbon Dioxide”

On this day, 11 September, 61 years ago, the New York Times carried a story – on page 29 – from their science correspondent Walter Sullivan.

The title was  “Air Found Gaining in Carbon Dioxide”  

Sullivan had already written a book – “Assault on the Unknown” about the International Geophysical Year, so this finding was hardly a shock.

On this day the PPM was 314.99. Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

Again, early days, but the issue was being watched…

What happened next?

Scientists kept sciencing. Sullivan kept writing about this stuff. Other NYT journos picked up the story too, over the following decades.

Categories
Australia Carbon Pricing

September 10, 2007 – shiny #climate promises versus grim reality

On this day, September 10, 2007, shiny declarations met grim reality.

“THE gap between doing something about climate change and talking about it was revealed yesterday. Before the ink was dry on the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum’s Sydney declaration on climate change calling for a boost in global energy efficiency, the NSW scheme designed to do just that was crashing.”

Wilkinson, M. 2007. Going global, crashing locally. Sydney Morning Herald, 11 September.

The NSW scheme was the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme. Tits on a bull, chocolate fireguard, whichever you prefer…

On this day the PPM was 381.2. Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

The good news of shiny declarations always wins out…

What happened next?

Marian Wilkinson wrote a book about “The Carbon Club”.

Categories
Australia

September 9, 1971 – of Australian Prime Ministers and American scientists…

On this day in 1971, Billy McMahon – until recently regarded as one of the worst Prime Ministers Australia had endured – was being dismissive about Paul Ehrlich, the American biologist and prominent doomster (Ehrlich was, in the long-run, right).

Mr HURFORD – I address my question to the Prime Minister. Has he read and/or heard of the views of Professor Ehrlich, an eminent ecologist, that, with the present growth in world population and taking into consideration the present known incapacity of the world to produce the necessary protein food, energy, etc. to support this population, the world is set on a disaster course? 

Does he realise that these views are causing great concern in the community? Will he use the vast resources of the Commonwealth Government to appraise these views and either contradict them or notify the House as to how he can appropriately alter Government policy, and Government leadership in the world, to take into account the views of Professor Ehrlich? 


Mr McMAHON» – I have not closely studied Professor Ehrlich’s statements but I have read comments about them in the Press «and» seen resumes of what he has said. I must say that I was not attracted by what he has said publicly. I well remember in my very early days at the university when 1 was studying economics that there were many other people who made similar forecasts «and» who turned out to be just as wrong. Where would we have been if we had taken notice of a most distinguished professor at the University of Sydney who said that we could not have a population much in excess of 15 million? We now know that we can take a vastly larger population than that «and» provide better living standards for people provided only that the Liberal Country Party coalition remains in government. I think the honourable member being a thoughtful person and ready to accept what I have said will know the extent to which I disagree with Professor Ehrlich.

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;orderBy=date-eLast;page=0;query=Ehrlich%20and%20McMahon;rec=0;resCount=Default

Meanwhile, Stephen Schneider got a letter published in the New York Times, in response to some earlier nonsense…

(Hat-tip to Real Climate for the jpg)

Categories
Australia Denial

September 8, 1990 – Australian #climate denialist spouting his nonsense…

On this day, 8 September 1990 a climate denialist called John Daly was spouting his soothing nonsense.

The worsening of the greenhouse effect is not inevitable, according to the author of The Greenhouse Trap, John Daly. Sea levels may not be rising, the planet may not be warming and studies indicate that the real increase in carbon-dioxide emission world-wide since 1850 is not the commonly reported 80 per cent but about 25 per cent, he says.

Mr Daly, a marine electronics engineer, spoke in Canberra on Saturday night [8 September] on what he calls a program of misinformation.

His recent exposure of inaccuracies in a schools’ brochure issued by the Minister for the Environment, Ros Kelly, led to its withdrawal.

Mr Daly quotes several eminent Australian scientists and many American ones as having compiled

evidence casting doubt on the existence of the greenhouse effect.

“I just want people to realise that there is some doubt,” Mr Daly said.

He says that in 20 years’ study of weather and science, particularly during the greenhouse effect’s “fashionable” period, the ’80s, he has found little to prove its existence.

Anon. 1990. Author questions greenhouse effect. Canberra Times, 10 September, p. 5.

Idiot.

On this day the PPM was 351.38. Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

There was a very successful campaign by over-confident and wilfully ignorant “contrarians” for decades. Daly was present at the creation.

What happened next?

The denial stuff kept on going. Old white men painted themselves into a corner and admit they were wrong. So it goes.

Categories
Ignored Warnings United States of America

September 7, 1977 – #climate scientist Stephen Schneider on Carson for the last time…

On this day, September 7 1977, climate scientist Stephen Schneider is on the Johnny Carson show for the last time (he deviated from the script!)

“How many of you think the world is cooling?” That’s what Steve Schneider asked the studio audience of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in September 1977. And when the majority put their hands up, he explained that the recent cooling trend had only been short-term. Though the unscripted poll meant Steve wasn’t invited back to the programme, through the summer of that year he had brought climate science to US national TV. The appearances typified Steve’s efforts to bring climate change to the world’s notice – efforts that would later draw attention of a less desirable sort.

When the climate change fight got ugly

CHECK OUT SCIENCE AS A CONTACT SPORT PAGE 73

On this day the PPM was 331.29 Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

What if Carson hadn’t had a hissy fit? Would have made an interesting counter-factual…

What happened next?

Carson stopped inviting Schneider on. So it goes.