Seventeen years ago, on this day, July 13th, 2009,
Mr Gore will launch Safe Climate Australia at an invitation-only Docklands breakfast tomorrow in front of a 1000-strong crowd from the investment, science and political communities. The group will not buy into the political debate as it tries to raise $1.5 million a year to find ways to “de-carbonise” the Australian economy.
Bachelard 12 July 2009.
On 13 July 2009, approximately 30 members of the Climate Sceptics Party and supporters arrived at the venue where Al Gore, was speaking in Melbourne, to hand out leaflets for those attending, with questions to ask Al Gore during his speech.[2] Some wore T-shirts bearing the party’s slogan: “Carbon Really Ain’t Pollution – CRAP”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 388ppm. 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 Gore had paid several visits to Australia by this time, usually at the behest of NSW Premier Bob Carr. Australia is in many ways a cultural colony, and doesn’t believe home-grown talent matters – it’s the foreigners who give the imprimatur (see also Stephen Schneider’s 1989 book on this).
The specific context was that Kevin Rudd’s “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme” was the hot topic. It had failed in parliament once, and a second bite at the cherry was due before the end of the year, when the Copenhagen conference was happening.
What I think we can learn from this is that we have totally screwed ourselves.
What happened next The emissions kept climbing.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-al-gores-climate-missions-to-australia-81023
References
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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.
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Also on this day:
July 13, 1971 – Stephen Schneider “predicts” an ice age (so the myth goes)