Thirty four years ago, on this day, September 30, 1991,
The cost of repairing damage to the environment must be included in the price of resources, the Federal Government was told yesterday.
The message was delivered to senior ministers during a private meeting with the heads of the Government’s working groups on ecologically sustainable development.
They warned that the community must be more closely involved if the plan to write sustainable policies for resource-based industries was to succeed.
The working group heads put their views directly to ministers and the Prime Minister, shortly before Mr Hawke had talks with representatives of business, unions, and green groups.
1991 Peake,R. 1991. Report Backs Green Levy On Consumers. The Age, 1 October, p.18.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 355ppm. 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 that in 1990, after winning the March Federal election by a very slender margin, with the grudging support of small g- green voters, the Labor government of Bob Hawke had initiated an “Ecologically Sustainable Development” process. This dragged on, and by September 1991 the draft reports were released.
The specific context was that everyone knew Hawke’s days were numbered – Paul Keating was lurking in the wings, waiting for Hawke to stumble…
What I think we can learn from this is that policy processes are meat-grinders, and leave few good options for NGOs. Refuse to participate and you look prima donna. Participate and you are ground down and look complicit.
What happened next – Hawke stumbled, Keating came for him, got the Prime Ministership. ESD got thrown in the bin.
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 30, 1969 -US activist publication mentions climate change
September 30, 1977 – “Carbon Dioxide and climate: carbon budget still unbalanced”
September 30, 2009 – Tony Abbott says #climate science is “absolute crap”