Ten years ago, on this day, December 2nd, 2015, Australian climate protesters held a Parliament House sit-in.
Climate Change: Sit-In Protesters Dragged Out Of The Australian Parliament
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 401ppm. 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 parliament has proved itself to be largely stuffed with mental or moral defectives (the two are not mutually exclusive, obvs) with the smartest being venal corporate meat-puppets. This is part of the overall assault on civil society by both corporate and state interests, a phenomenon that is going on around the world, with dire consequences. Oh well.
The specific context was – oh, I don’t know. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull being useless.
What I think we can learn from this – we are fubarred.
What happened next – protests continued. Emissions continued to climb. But then, thank goodness, a Labor government came to power in 2022 and there began a stark improvement in climate policy. Oh yes.
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
December 2, 1964 – Mario Savio’s “bodies on the gears” speech at Berkeley..
December 2, 1981 – “Is the world getting warmer?” (YES)
December 2, 1991 – “Ecologically Sustainable Development” bites the dust…
December 2, 2023 – Exxon’s boss vs IEA, planet – All Our Yesterdays