Twenty five years ago, on this day, November 1st, 2001,
One billion dollars of money already allocated in this year’s Budget for a restructured Natural Heritage Trust formed the centrepiece of the Coalition’s environment policy, announced yesterday.
Launching the policy on the mist-shrouded banks of the upper Yarra, in the marginal Coalition seat of McEwen, the Prime Minister said Australia “had punched above its weight” on international environmental issues.
But the policy was immediately denounced by green groups as the worst environmental policy since the 1970s.
The Australian Conservation Foundation executive director, Don Henry, said that while the Government was investing money in tree planting it would fail on key issues such as salinity and greenhouse by not committing on legislation on land clearing and ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.
2001 Banham, C. 2001. Howls Of Anger As PM Paints Himself Green. Sydney Morning Herald, 2 November, p.8.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 371ppm. 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 Australian political elites had briefly (1988 to 1990) thought about doing the right thing and being a responsible global player, and had quickly realised this would involve them picking fights with very powerful vested interests, and perhaps interfere with their post-career sinecures, so they chose the other side.
The specific context was that John Howard had by this stage already won three elections, 1996-1998 and the November 2001 Federal election was nine days away, so of course he was spouting absolute bullshit.
What I think we can learn from this is that if you have self-confidence and the media on your side, because your rich mates approve of what you’re doing, since it’s making them even richer, you can get away with any amount of crap, especially if the electorate is poorly educated, poorly informed, subject to propaganda, etc.
What happened next Howard continued to get away with anti-climate action until late 2006 when the tide finally turned and he was then booted out at the next election.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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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.
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:
November 1, 1953 – Australia strikes oil
November 1, 1959 – M1 motorway section opened
November 1, 1965 – “Fortune” magazine covers carbon dioxide build-up
November 1, 1968 – Ida Hoos on carbon dioxide build-up
November 1, 1969 – “Carbon dioxide affects global ecology”
November 1, 1970 – Ayn Rand fulminates incorrectly, for the first time ever
November 1, 1974 – UK civil servants writing to each other on “Climatology”
November 1, 1975 – Stephen Schneider tries to clear up the “Carbon Dioxide Climate Confusion.”
November 1988 – Australian Mining Journal says C02 is a Good Thing
November 1, 1989 – Senior Australian politician talks on “Industry and Environment”
November 1, 1989 – “Greenhouse Action Australia” launches…
November 1, 2004 – Brilliant “Balance as Bias” article published