Fourteen years ago, on this day, July 1st, 2012,
Australian emissions trading scheme comes into effect. See here.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 394ppm. 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 the idea of putting a price on carbon dioxide because of its global warming impacts was hardly new. In 1988 the Science Minister Barry Jones had suggested as much (not that he was at the centre of policymaking around this stuff, unfortunately). There had been several efforts to get it accepted, and lots of resistance from the mining companies etc (somebody should write a PhD thesis about this).
Finally, a woman was left to clear up the messes…
The specific context was that in the first half of 2011 an extraordinary campaign – spilling over into all sorts of misogyny, lies, vituperation, bullshit economic modelling – was launched against the Gillard ETS scheme. However, in September 2011 her legislation passed through both houses of Parliament and became law.
What I think we can learn from this – even the mildest and most straightforward responses to the climate threat (and there is so so much more to be done beyond putting a price on carbon) have been rendered virtually impossible thanks to the resistance by some of the worst people on the planet. Oh well.
(As a very smart friend, who proofreads these posts commented – “the example of ETS mostly is a significant piece of evidence that the carbon lobby/incumbents have a documented history of losing their minds, going to any lengths to prevent ‘even the mildest and most straightforward responses, etc. etc.”
What happened next
Gillard’s ETS did, perhaps, help to push emissions down (or was that simply Tasmanian hydro coming onto the grid? People will argue). And then, in 2013 the Liberal National coalition came to power, led by Tony Abbott. He got rid of the emissions trading scheme. Australia still doesn’t have a real price on carbon dioxide. Oh well.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
March 23, 2011 – Ditch the Witch rally in Canberra
References
Power Failure by Phillip Chubb
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:
July 1, 1950 – “Is the World Getting Warmer?” asks Saturday Evening Post
July 1, 1957- A key “year” in climate science begins…
July 1, 1959 – Gilbert Plass article on climate change published in Scientific American
July 1, 1983 – Australian High Court “saves” Franklin River (it woz the activists wot won it)