Fourteen years ago, on this day, July 11, 2012,
“Last night I attended the Sydney talk of Canadian author and blogger Donna Laframboise, whose book, “The Delinquent Teenager who was mistaken for the world’s top Climate Expert” has recently been published here in Australia.” [some defunct blog]
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 climate denialism had been around all along. One early example in Australia was John Daly and his book “The Greenhouse Trap.” In the late 2000s, when the prospect of – gasp – a price on carbon dioxide emissions – became a live political issue – the denialists swamped the airways. Various nutjobs were invited on tour.
The specific context was the Gillard ETS scheme had come into effect, having passed through Parliament in 2011. The antis (rightly) anticipated that a Tony Abbott-led government would abolish it.
What I think we can learn from this. We are a muppet species.
What happened next. Abbott did indeed repeal the actual emissions trading portions of Gillard’s Clean Energy Package. Globally, emissions kept climbing, and atmospheric concentrations kept climbing. The Fafocene has begun.
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 10, 1985 – French state commits terrorist act
July 10, 1996 – National Greenhouse Advisory Panel cops a serve
July 10, 2008 – first Australian #Climate Camp begins, near Newcastle