Month: September 2024

Categories
Australia

September 3, 1990 – Greenies meet Prime Minister, a cautious dance ensues

Thirty four years ago, on this day, September 3rd, 1990, Bob Hawke has to keep the promise that got him back as Prime Minister… (well, one of them).

Conservation groups left Parliament House in Canberra on Monday [3rd], resisting Federal Government pressure to join efforts to achieve consensus over sustainable development.

This followed Stage Two of a special summit process including representatives from government, environmental groups and industry.

Members of Greenpeace, the Australian Conservation Foundation, World Wide Fund for Nature and the Wilderness Society spent more than an hour with Prime Minister Bob Hawke discussing a range of issues.

Anon,1990. Greens meet Hawke but resist consensus. Green Week, September 4, p.9.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 354ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that small-g green had come out for Labor giving second preferences in the Australian Federal election of March 1990. This meant that the incumbent Labor government squeaked back home. And the quid pro quo was that there would be more serious engagement with “ecologically sustainable development.” There had been, at last, a position paper in June of 1990. That had been fairly piss-weak on climate, of course, because it’s the big unmentionable to hard basket item, really. And here was Hawke meeting with the greenies to the fear and dismay and disgust of the business sector. Which you have to remember at this point, didn’t know if Hawke might go on for years and years. 

What we learn is that there are always these sorts of meetings and quid pro quos and attempts to get mainstream parties to pay at least lip service to not being ecocidal maniacs. These usually end in tears for the ‘greenies’, because the system rewards Ecocide or maniac behaviour and punishes anything that isn’t ecocidal mania. 

What happened next? After some further toing and froing and argy bargy the Ecologically Sustainable Development policymaking process did indeed happen. The greenies performed well intellectually. Business didn’t quite know what happened. But it was all for naught because business and bureaucracy – especially bureaucracy – were able to water things down and water things down. And then they got especially lucky, when Hawke was replaced by his former Treasurer Paul Keating. And then the dismissal of ecologically sustainable development kicked up a serious gear. It was killed off in the committees and left to die by the wayside. And also, there was the infamous meeting in the middle of 1992. Supposed to be a two day event. But everyone walked out at the end of day one because the bureaucrats were such assholes.

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.

References

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Also on this day: 

September 3, 1988 – Ann Landers is Greta Thunberg avant la lettre…

September 3, 2002 – “Kyoto cuts too small, so we’re not going to bother”. 

Categories
United Kingdom

September 2,1972 – BBC Radio speaks of “A Finite Earth”

Fifty two years ago, on this day, September 2nd, 1972,

A Finite Earth BBC Radio 3

First broadcast: Sat 2nd Sep 1972, 21:55 on BBC Radio 3

Professor Dennis Meadows , Dartmouth University, USA, co-author of The Limits to Growth in discussion with Professor Wilfred Beckerman , University College, London, member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. about the concept of using a computerised world model to determine the limits to continued economic growth.

The publication of The Limits to Growth has stimulated renewed controversy In the doomsday debate. Professor Beckerman attacks the assumptions of the report and challenges its conclusions.

Chaired by Michael Peacock

Producer Michael BRIGHT – (see also review of this by David Wade the following week in The Times)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 327ppm. As of 2024 it is 420ishppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the Limits to Growth report had come out before this, as had the Blueprint for Survival. Since then the Stockholm Conference on the Environment had happened. Everyone was saying, thinking about limits to growth, agreeing, disagreeing, and it was fair fodder for radio programmes where you could have various talking heads. And this is one where Wilfred Beckerman got a chance to talk. He was an economist and he was on the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution at the time. He was up against Dennis Meadows, one of the LtG authors/.

What we learn is that radio was not all radio gaga, and it was having one of its finest hours. nd the debates that we’re still having in 2024 were being had, then round and round in circles we go where it stops, nobody knows (well, the collapse of western “civ”, obvs). 

What happened next. The sorts of programmes and series kept being produced. Middle-class people kept stroking their chins while accepting promotions and ever greater comfort, believing that the system was fair, was delivering for them, because it was – without thinking about the deeper underlying costs in the long term. There was always such a short-term price to pay. If you go up against “the system” (man).

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: 

September 2, 1972 – Adelaide FOE asks “is technology a blueprint for destruction?” (Spoiler – ‘yes’)

September 2, 1994 – International Negotiating Committee 10th meeting ends

September 2, 2002- Peter Garrett argues “community action” vs #climate change