Twenty nine years ago, on this day, September 17th, 1997,
| “Federal Cabinet will tomorrow consider the Government’s crucial domestic greenhouse policy, which it intends to use to convince the international community Australia is not seeking a “free ride” on climate change.” Taylor, L. 1997. Cabinet to look at new tack on climate change. The Australian Financial Review, 15 September, p. 5 |
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 364ppm. 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 John Howard had become Prime Minister in March 1996 and it was pretty clear that he was going to oppose any commitments for Australia on reducing its emissions. He had sent people around the world to try and drum up diplomatic support, or at least tolerance, for his view ahead of the impending conference of the parties in Kyoto at which rich nations were supposed to come with their emissions reductions proposals.
The specific context was that this sort of flat out intransigence was causing consternation both within the Liberal Party and across business and voters more generally, so Howard was having to do a little bit of his PR shtick.
What I think we can learn from this is that in any society, but especially one with elections, politicians will have to pretend to give a shit about issues they really do not give a shit about.
What happened next Howard’s Environment Minister, Robert Hill, managed to extort a fantastically generous deal at Kyoto (de jure 108% de facto, once you took into account the so-called land clearing clause, the Australia clause).
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On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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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:
September 17, 1954 – nuclear electricity will be too cheap to meter
September 17, 1969 – trying to spin Vietnam, Moynihan starts warning about #climate change
September 17, 1978 – National Climate Program Act
September 17, 1980 – Canberra Times reports “fossil fuels changing climate”
September 17, 1987 – Policymakers turn from Ozone to Greenhouse, says Wall Street Journal
September 17, 1987 – report on “The Greenhouse Project” launch
September 17, 1992 – Paul Keating versus climate action (spoiler: Keating wins)
September 17, 2002 – UK Government announces feasibility study into Carbon Capture and Storage