On this day, September 20, 1893, Charles Duryea and his brother Frank road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.
On this day the PPM was 295ppm
Now it is 420ish – but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
What a potentially useful invention. What a catastrophe it has turned out to be. Oh well
What happened next?
Vroom vroom! The car took over the world, reshaped cities, killed millions upon millions and, of course, polluted the atmosphere.
On this day, 19th September, 1997,
“The 16 member South Pacific Forum meeting was held at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and attended by Prime Minister John Howard. Greenhouse and climate change issues received significant media attention during this meeting. Australia’s position on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions differed strongly from the other 15 nations attending the forum. The AOSIS (particularly Tuvalu) demands were for a binding 20 per cent reduction in 1990 greenhouse gas emissions by 2005, while Australia aimed to avoid language calling for binding targets. At the conclusion of the meeting the Forum statement did not support the AOSIS proposal but urged parties to consider it.”
[source- https://www.forumsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/1997-Communique%CC%81-Rarotonga-17-19-Sep.pdf
On this day the PPM was 364ish. Now it is 420ish – but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
Australia has been ignoring its neighbours on the existential threat of climate change for a very long time.
What happened next?
Australia carved out a sweet sweet deal at Kyoto. Then still would not ratify. Kept increasing its coal exports, kept hampering the development of renewables locally.
On this day, 18 September 2013 a Greenpeace protest ended badly, with the crew of its ship the Arctic Sunrise attempting to scale the Prirazlomnaya drilling platform, as part of a protest against Arctic oil production. (see here)
The following day they were captured,in international waters, by Russians
On this day the PPM was 393. Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
We should remember that there have been efforts to at least slow the acceleration of our dash for death.
What happened next?
The crew were released three months later, the ship three months after that.
Twenty years ago today the first of many many CCS advisory panels was launched.
The Energy White Paper recognised the longer term strategic importance of Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS), as a potentially valuable contribution to the achievement of its target for a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This study was announced by Brian Wilson MP, the then Minister for Industry and Energy, on 17 September 2002 with the following objectives:
■ establish the technical feasibility of CO2 capture and storage as a low carbon option
■ define the potential technical, market, economic, public acceptability and legal barriers, and consider options for their solution
■ establish the circumstances that could make the option competitive with other abatement measures
■ consider the size of the potential contribution to UK abatement targets
■ assess export opportunities for the technology
■ define the role for Government in taking forward CO2 capture and storage
On this day the PPM was 370.69
Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
How long does it take for a technology to take-off? How quickly do we forget?
What happened next?
Proposals, competitions, betrayal, more panels. And here we are…
On this day, September 17 1969, Patrick Moynihan, wrote a memo to the Nixon administration warning of the build up of carbon dioxide.
See here.
To quote yesterday’s blog, which was also about 1969, the context is that by the late 1960s smart people were paying attention to – and starting to get worried about – carbon dioxide build-up. Burnet was not alone in this.
But the broader context – which I have not seen in the popular accounts of Moynihan’s warning (it crops up on Twitter occasionaly). Tricky Dick Nixon was keen to get Europeans thinking about, well, anything other than Vietnam, and was seeking to retool NATO to include “challenges to modern society” – including ‘the environment’.
Connecting with President-elect Richard Nixon in 1968, he joined Nixon’s White House Staff as Counselor to the President for Urban Affairs. He was very influential at that time, as one of the few people in Nixon’s inner circle who had done academic research related to social policies.
In 1969, on the initiative of Nixon, NATO tried to establish a third civil column, establishing itself as a hub of research and initiatives in the civil region, dealing as well with environmental topics.[6] Moynihan[6] named Acid Rain and the Greenhouse effect as suitable international challenges to be dealt by NATO. NATO was chosen, since the mutual defense organization had suitable expertise in the field and experience with international research coordination. The German government was skeptical and saw the initiative as an attempt to regain international terrain after the lost Vietnam War. The topics, however, gained momentum in civil conferences and institutions.[6]
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Daniel_Patrick_Moynihan
Why this matters.
Let no-one tell you this was a sudden surprise in 1988 (and even if it were, we’ve had a generation to start taking action).
What happened next?
More and more people became aware of the problems. But awareness is not political and economic power, and those who were doing nicely from the sale of deliciously cheap and abundant fossil fuels saw no reason to stop. And every reason to stop those who wanted them to stop. So that’s what they did, very well, for a very long time. Eternity, effectively.
On this day September 16 1969, Sir Macfarlane Burnet, an extremely eminent Australian scientist pointed to carbon dioxide as a serious potential problem. Yes, 1969.
Call to keep world at 2,000m
MELBOURNE, Monday. — The world population should be adjusted and maintained at perhaps 2,000 million, distinguished scientist Sir Macfarlane Burnet said today.
It was one of five minimum requirements that he set down for a “stable human eco-system” or an harmonious world.
Sir Macfarlane was delivering a paper at the Felton Bequests Symposium at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Melbourne.
Sir Macfarlane said the other requirements included a stabilisation of the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to avoid the possibility of disastrous climatic change.
The theme of the symposium was the influence of scientific advances on the future of mankind. It was arranged by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in honour of Sir Macfarlane’s 70th birthday.
Anon, 1969. Call to keep world at 2000m. Canberra Times, 16 September, p.3.
On this day the PPM was 323 ish. Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.
The context is that by the late 1960s smart people were paying attention to – and starting to get worried about – carbon dioxide build-up. Burnet was not alone in this.
Why this matters.
Let no-one tell you this was a sudden surprise in 1988 (and even if it were, we’ve had a generation to start taking action).
What happened next?
More and more people became aware of the problems. But awareness is not political and economic power, and those who were doing nicely from the sale of deliciously cheap and abundant fossil fuels saw no reason to stop. And every reason to stop those who wanted them to stop. So that’s what they did, very well, for a very long time. Eternity, effectively.
.
On this day in 1982 gutsy people fight back
1982: Warren County, North Carolina. Birth of the “Environmental Justice” movement
September 15 – October 31: State uses nearly one million dollars of police force to bury 10,000 truckloads of PCB-contaminated soil from approximately 250 miles of roadside.
Warren County citizens and their supporters march, protest and over 500 people are arrested. The environmental justice movement is launched.
And 8 years later, dreams of redemption and safety are sold back to us…
15 September 1990 Captain Planet and the Planeteers first episode
But really, you need to check out the Don Cheadle spoof…
On this day, 15 September 1980, Australian scientists met in Canberra to discuss carbon dioxide and its build-up…
1980, 15 to 17 September, Carbon Dioxide and Climate – Australian Academy of Science symposium in Canberra
“In 1980, the Australian Academy of Science held a conference to review 20 years of measurements showing increasing carbon-dioxide levels, and by then there was an understanding that the greenhouse effect would result in climate change.”
Staples, J. 2009 page 2
And it got reported in the Canberra Times….
On September 14 2004, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair gave the usual sweeping soaring platitudes – see BBC report – not backed up by anything (see text here). But then, next year he was hosting the G7, and he needed something that didn’t involve dead Iraqis and missing “weapons of mass destruction”…
On this day the PPM was 377ish. Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.
See Lorenzoni, I. and Benson, D. 2014. Radical institutional change in environmental governance: Explaining the origins of the UK Climate Change Act 2008 through discursive and streams perspectives. Global Environmental Change, Vol. 29 pp.210-21)
On this day, September 14, 1991 according to a later article by Ross Gittins (Australian economics journalist) published in the Australian “Good Weekend” supplement.
“Deirdre Macken produced much evidence from market research that public concern about the environment, and the public’s willingness to buy eco-friendly products, had subsided markedly since their surge in 1989.”
Turns out it was all a fad.
And the fad came and went, until finally, in about 2021, reality came a knocking so loud she could no longer be ignored, and the issue attention cycle was – sort of – overcome…
On this day the PPM was
Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
People care, but unless that care is harnessed, protected, nurtured, then the buying of stuff (and giving of speeches) decays quickly. And it is very very rare for care to be harnessed, protected, nurtured.
What happened next?
We kept on buying stuff, including the fine words of politicians, and never trying to see the truth.