Thirty four years ago, on this day, November 4, 1988, the Federal Government’s Environment Minister, Graham Richardson – warns, at the Greenhouse 88 conference in Melbourne, that there is “no quick fix” for ‘the greenhouse effect’
The cover of “In Future” issue 11, the magazine of the Commission for the Future. The guy in the centre is Stephen Schneider. Top left is Barry Jones and Phillip Adams. Top right is Graham Richardson.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 351.7ppm. As of 2023 it is 419ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was
Greenhouse 88 had been the brainchild of the combination of “the Greenhouse Project” established in 1987, which had been a major project of the commission for the future and the Atmospheric Physics gang of the CSIRO.
What I think we can learn from this is that a smart politician and Graham Richardson – whatever else you want to say about him (and people have) – he’s smart. We should manage expectations and remind people that moments of exuberance and hope are no substitute for a long term decent movement.
What happened next
The Greenhouse Action Australia organisation did its best to keep the momentum going. See Dan Cass’s excellent article.
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.