Nineteen years ago, on this day, April 5th, 2005, the coal lobby got moving on spouting idiotic guff about carbon capture and storage.
5th April 2005 COAL21 first conference
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 380ppm. As of 2024 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that everyone was still banging on about technology as the solution, not that messy UNFCCC process with all those poor nations with their hands out.
And of course, Kyoto had been ratified. So Australia was going to have to engage with whatever came after Kyoto if it wanted to be a player. The Coal21 process was shambling along, it had been launched just over a year earlier. And everyone still believed (or pretended to do so) that technology would save the day.
What we learn is that there’s no necessary connection between reality and technology advocacy.
What happened next? The CCS bandwagon rolled on, especially thanks to huge injections of cash from Kevin Rudd. But then, regardless, the wheels fell off in 2009-10, in Australia at least.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
April 5, 1971- a UK scientist explains “pollution in context”
April 5, 2008 – Charlton Heston dies, star of first movie to mention the greenhouse effect