On this day June 2nd, 2005, 20 years ago California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced an initiative to curb greenhouse gas emissions in California as a step towards addressing global warming.
In his speech, the governor declared, “The debate is over. We know the science. We see the threat, and we know the time for action is now.”
–Arnold Schwarzenegger
San Francisco, June 2, 2005
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 380ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context for this was the US had pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations in early 2001, despite George W Bush’s campaign trail promise that he would regulate carbon dioxide (the real president, Dick Cheney, had other ideas).
The specific context was when the Federal government flubs an issue, various states, often including California, tries to lead – you see similar dynamics in other federal systems (Australia, Germany, whatever).
Historical context – check out the defeat of Proposition 128 – “Big Green” in November 1990.
What I think we can learn is this:
As human beings – celebrity is not transferable power, necessarily.
As “active citizens” – talk is cheap
Academics might want to ponder – the way policy is, well, terminated.
What happened next:
The emissions kept rising. The concentrations kept rising. People elected a climate denier as President. Twice. So, there’s that.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
Too many to mention
References
(as academic as possible, with DOIs if they exist.) hyperlinks.
You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day: