August 15, 1989 – Queenslander mayor says the greenhouse effect is like“a bird urinating in the Tweed River while in flight”

On this day, August 15 1989, an ex-Gold Coast mayor revealed his Einstein status when it came to understanding 19th century physics. 

“At the same time as Lester Brown, president of the prestigious Worldwatch Institute, was in Australia speaking about the grim state of the environment, former Gold Coast mayor Robert Neumann was comparing the greenhouse effect to “a bird urinating in the Tweed River while in flight”. “That’s what I think of this nonsense,” he added.”

Anon, 1989.  ‘People who claim that greenhouse is bunkum and hysteria. Green Week 4, August 15, p.6.

Green Week was a super-comprehensive news and analysis publication, which could not survive the end of public interest in “the environment” from 1992…

On this day the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was was 351.84 ppm. Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

It’s called “anti-reflexivity” – the unwillingness (or inability) to think about environmental problems caused by “modernisation”.

What happened next?

That level of wilful ignorance has persisted, sadly.