Twenty-five years ago, on this day, November 4th, 1999,
a report by The Australia Institute on Australians having highest per capita emissions is front page news for the Melbourne.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 369ppm. As of 2024 it is 423.7ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was Australia was built as a settler colony, and was burning enormous quantities of shitty coal, especially in Victoria, where they had basically limitless brown coal, which is filthy on so many levels.
And it’s hardly a surprise that Australia had the highest per capita emissions given the shittiness of their houses, the sources of their energy. Btw transport is not really that big a factor, because, despite the myth, most Australians don’t cover long distances. They are mostly huddled in various cities on the coast. There’s the myths that we like to tell ourselves and then there’s the reality.
What we learn is that you can tell Australians that they’re causing planetary mayhem as much as you like. It won’t change anything.
What happened next, Australia’s per capita emissions continued to be berserk and are down unto this day.
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:
November 4, 1988 – no quick fix on climate, warns Australian Environment Minister