Twenty two years ago, on this day, October 6th, 2004,
Quitting your job may not be the definition of a splurge, but for Dr Graeme Pearman, until last year head of the division of atmospheric research at the CSIRO, that’s what it took for him to see more of his grandchildren.
Vincent, P. 2004. How does Dr Graeme Pearman spoil himself? Sydney Morning Herald, October 6, p. 4.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 378ppm. 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 Graham Pearman had been counting carbon since the early 1970s. He had attended two pivotal scientific meetings in 1977, in Miami Beach, and then Germany, and had returned to Australia to try to inform and galvanise scientists. Pearman had also been instrumental in the 1980 symposium. Pearman had organised the 1987 planning for greenhouse conference, and briefed Keating’s cabinet in 1994. Anyway, there’s only so much bullshit a man can take, and Pearman had had his fill by this point.
The specific context was the Howard government’s endless climate criminality can wear a man down.
What I think we can learn from this is that our politicians are not fit for purpose (if the purpose is a habitable planet. If it’s short-term comfort and profit for a thin sliver of the population, then they’re great).
What happened next is that there are scientists Jim Hansen, Stephen Schneider, Kevin Anderson, plenty of others, I mean hundreds of others who have spent their lives trying to sound the warning. And their warnings have fallen on largely willfully deaf ears. That is less to do with the scientists and the facts and more to do with greed, stupidity, and organised enforced ignorance. And the weakness of civil society.
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.
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:
October 6, 1988 – coal lobby says greenhouse effect “greatly exaggerated”
October 6, 1989 – Hawke Government given climate heads up by top scientist – All Our Yesterdays
October 6, 1997 – Australia says nope to uniform emissions 5% cut. Assholes. – All Our Yesterdays
October 6, 2005 – carbon capture is doable… – All Our Yesterdays
October 6, 2008 – “Quit Coal” Greenpeace boards ships – All Our Yesterdays