Twenty years ago, on this day, September 15th, 2005,
Friends of the Earth Australia: A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Refugees – “While the Earth has always endured natural climate change variability, we are now facing the possibility of irreversible climate change in the near future. The increase of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere from industrial processes has enhanced the natural greenhouse effect.”
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 was the issue of climate refugees rocking up in Australia was not new – James Burke had talked about it in his 1989 documentary “After the Warming.”
The specific context was that Friends of the Earth battles on, trying to get people to think about the uncomfortable issues. 2005 was before the ‘great awakening of late 2006-2007’ and it must have seemed pretty futile, but they persisted.
What I think we can learn from this: You have to keep saying the truth. Hardly anyone listens, but wasn’t it ever thus?
What happened next
Anthony Albanaese started wanging on about climate refugees in late 2006, as a way of cornering John Howard (see my October last year stuff).
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
Xxx
Also on this day:
September 15, 1980 – Australian scientists hold “Carbon Dioxide and Climate” symposium in Canberra
September 15, 1982/1990 – “Environmental Justice” is born. And so is Captain Planet…
September 15, 1996 – A CCS posterchild is born: Sleipner Field comes online. – All Our Yesterdays
September 15, 2008- business splits over what to extort from Rudd…