Nineteen years ago, on this day, October 3rd, 2007,
A new $4 million commitment to educating local governments on responses to climate change will tackle the global problem at a community level, federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/turnbulls-4m-climate-pledge/2007/10/03/1191091180504.html
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 384ppm. 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 Liberals had been shit on climate change after the 1990 federal election, which they narrowly lost, but in late 2006 had had to modify that because the public was going through one of its periodic “oh, actually, a habitable planet would be quite a nice thing” phases.
The specific context was that the federal election was only a few weeks away, the campaign may have actually already begun, and Turnbull, as Environment Minister, was having to say this sort of crap.
What I think we can learn from this is that what comes out of a politician’s mouth is usually crap, even more so at election times.
What happened next Turnbull became opposition leader, was then toppled by Tony Abbott, and then five years later toppled Abbott back (this time for the Prime Minister gig), and then, of course, was toppled in a coup, where it was probably Peter Dutton who started it, and Scott Morrison who was the final victor.
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:
October 3, 1970 & 2008: Nixon creates EPA, Brown creates DECC
October 3, 1970 & 2008: Nixon creates EPA, Brown creates DECC