Fifteen years ago, on this day, July 22nd, 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron writes a letter about carbon pricing in Australia.
Mr Cameron’s letter, dated July 22 [2011], is the second high-profile endorsement for Labor’s carbon tax plans in less than a week, after former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair, in Australia for a series of corporate speaking events, said reducing carbon-fuel dependence was an “intelligent” move being adopted around the world, during a joint press conference with Ms Gillard.
http://www.thegwpf.com/cameron-thatcher-lawson-a-the-watermelon-theory-of-climate-politics/
I was delighted to hear of the ambitious package of climate change policy measures you announced on 10 July and wanted to congratulate you on taking this bold step …
He said it ‘will add momentum to those, in both the developed and developing world, who are serious about dealing with this urgent threat’.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 392ppm. As of 2026, 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 Cameron had used ‘green-ness’ as a way of de-toxifying the Conservative brand. He had formed a coalition government with the Lib Dems in 2010. Meanwhile, Gillard had become Prime Minister in 2010, after Kevin Rudd’s comms director dissed her to a journo. She’d been on course to win the following election, but lots of mysterious leaks were happening…. So, she ended up having to form a minority government. One price for support was a carbon price.
The specific context was that for months (Feb to July) there was daily madness around a carbon price. The Murdoch media went into over-drive. It was a truly bizarre time.
What I think we can learn from this – not much. It’s just an historical curiosity.
What happened next
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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References
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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.
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Also on this day:
July 22, 1966 – “The Conservation Society” holds launch event
July 22, 1968 – Andrei Sakharov’s manifesto mentions carbon dioxide build up as one to watch…
July 22, 1968 – Gordon Macdonald tries to warn about carbon dioxide build-up…
July 22, 1991 – two #climate idiots on the Science Show