Category: Australia

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Australia

September 26, 1989 – Australian Union body tries to add green to red…

On this day September 26, 1989, the Australian Trade Union movement tried to go green. The ACTU – the Australian Confederation of Trade Unions – released a report…

“The ACTU has signalled it is changing its colours and turning green by making its first major policy statement on environmental issues.

The statement – to be debated at the ACTU Congress this morning – represents a concerted attempt by the organisation to overcome public opinion that the union movement is full of pro-logging rednecks.

“The ACTU hopes that by tapping into the groundswell of concern over environmental matters it will prove its relevance to the community and boost its membership numbers.

1989 Moffet, L. 1989. ACTU turns a decided shade of green. The Australian Financial Review, 26 September.

The context is that everyone in Australia was running around proclaiming their green-ness at the time. In May 1989 there had been a public spat between the Australian Labor Party government’s Environment Minister, Graham Richardson, and a senior union official (see June 9 1989 post)

June 9, 1989 – the Australian Labor Party versus the unions versus the planet #climate

On this day the PPM was 350.09 ppm.

Now it is 420ish – but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

The need for red-green coalitions – and the difficulty of creating/maintaining these – have a very very long history.

What happened next?

Climate and energy policy got subcontracted/given to the coal-miners union within the ACTU.  And that did not go well.  More on this another time perhaps.

Categories
Australia Denial

September 24, 1991 – Australian denialist gives “Greenhouse Myths” seminar.

On this day in 24 September 1991, an Australian scientist called Brian O’Brien gave a seminar called “Greenhouse Myths and Messages” at a seminar of the Tasman Institute. The Tasman Institute had been set up pretty much to combat momentum towards environmental protection legislation. They published a series of “reports” and seminars/speaker tours (including international visitors).

O’Brien is dead now, so libel laws don’t apply.

What a prick. What an arrogant moron.

His obituary here https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/Article/2020/August/UWA-physicist-leaves-behind-stellar-legacy

is suitably silent on his disgraceful and damaging action on climate change (there’s a lot more than a mere seminar.”)

The context – Tasman – and others – were trying to kill off proposals for economic responses to carbon dioxide build-up, especially a carbon tax. This seminar will have been scheduled in the knowledge that the draft chapters of the “Ecologically Sustainable Development” process were to be released. A seminar like this would provide a nice hook for a press release/puff piece by a sympathetic journalist…  That’s how this stuff works.

On this day the PPM was 352.34

Now it is 420ish – but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

Old men with relevance deprivation syndrome throwing their weight and over-confidence around. Gaia help us all.

What happened next?

The Tasman Institute was a dead duck by the late 90s – with the arrival of a Liberal National Government there was no need for it, and its sponsors pulled the plug.

O’Brien may or may not have had second thoughts. I don’t know or care. When it mattered, he was wrong.

Categories
Australia

September 22, 1991 – ESD RIP. Australia’s chance of a different future… squashed flat.

On this day in September 22, 1991, the hold-hands and sing Kumbaya phase of “ecologically sustainable development” came to an end. After 18 months, the “Ecologically Sustainable Development” policy process got (knee)capped.

“Damaging splits are emerging over the plan by the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, to put resource-based industries on a sustainable footing.

Business groups yesterday strongly criticised lack of consultation, and said they might withdraw from the process. They could then claim not to be bound by the recommendations of the taskforce. They said the plan to write ecologically sustainable development policies was badly flawed and could damage the national interest.”

Peake, R. 1991. Sustainable Growth Plan At Risk. The Age, 23 September, p.3.

and

Industry groups attacked the Federal Government yesterday for the lack of consultation in its ecologically sustainable development working groups.

However, in a separate move [and quite possibly co-ordinated, MH], the Minister for Resources, Mr Griffiths, criticised environmental groups over their role in the development debate.

The Business Council argues that the main engine driving the ESD process is the concern about the “potential augmented greenhouse effect”. But the groups had failed to recognise the point made by the Industry Commission in its report on greenhouse, that “there are major uncertainties in each of the many facets of the greenhouse effect”. 

The carbon tax favoured by the ESD working groups would have negligible effect on global greenhouse emissions if it were imposed unilaterally, the council said.

1991 Garran, R. 1991. Industry berates government on Sustainable Development. The Australian Financial Review, 23 September, p.4.

On this day the PPM was 352.34 PPM.

Now it is 420ish – but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

Oh, we can have pretty much the same kind of economic growth we always have had. Bit of technofix here, bit of nip-and-tuck there, it will be fiiiine…

Even the relatively mild and reformist ideas of a carbon tax got kicked into the long grass… So it goes.

What happened next?

Hawke was on his way out. The next (Labor) Prime Minister, Paul Keating and his neoliberal hate-greenies officers kicked all things ecological, climate into the very long grass. John Howard took that and dialled it up to 11. And here we are…

Categories
Australia Science Scientists

September 16, 1969 – Nobel-prize winning Australian scientist warns about carbon dioxide build-up. Yes, 1969

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.

Categories
Australia Ignored Warnings Science Scientists

September 15, 1980 – Australian scientists hold “Carbon Dioxide and Climate” symposium in Canberra

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….

Categories
Australia

“Greenhouse Effect worries?” That’s sooo 1989… Sept 14, 1991. #auspol

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.

Categories
Australia Carbon Pricing

September 10, 2007 – shiny #climate promises versus grim reality

On this day, September 10, 2007, shiny declarations met grim reality.

“THE gap between doing something about climate change and talking about it was revealed yesterday. Before the ink was dry on the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum’s Sydney declaration on climate change calling for a boost in global energy efficiency, the NSW scheme designed to do just that was crashing.”

Wilkinson, M. 2007. Going global, crashing locally. Sydney Morning Herald, 11 September.

The NSW scheme was the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme. Tits on a bull, chocolate fireguard, whichever you prefer…

On this day the PPM was 381.2. Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

The good news of shiny declarations always wins out…

What happened next?

Marian Wilkinson wrote a book about “The Carbon Club”.

Categories
Australia

September 9, 1971 – of Australian Prime Ministers and American scientists…

On this day in 1971, Billy McMahon – until recently regarded as one of the worst Prime Ministers Australia had endured – was being dismissive about Paul Ehrlich, the American biologist and prominent doomster (Ehrlich was, in the long-run, right).

Mr HURFORD – I address my question to the Prime Minister. Has he read and/or heard of the views of Professor Ehrlich, an eminent ecologist, that, with the present growth in world population and taking into consideration the present known incapacity of the world to produce the necessary protein food, energy, etc. to support this population, the world is set on a disaster course? 

Does he realise that these views are causing great concern in the community? Will he use the vast resources of the Commonwealth Government to appraise these views and either contradict them or notify the House as to how he can appropriately alter Government policy, and Government leadership in the world, to take into account the views of Professor Ehrlich? 


Mr McMAHON» – I have not closely studied Professor Ehrlich’s statements but I have read comments about them in the Press «and» seen resumes of what he has said. I must say that I was not attracted by what he has said publicly. I well remember in my very early days at the university when 1 was studying economics that there were many other people who made similar forecasts «and» who turned out to be just as wrong. Where would we have been if we had taken notice of a most distinguished professor at the University of Sydney who said that we could not have a population much in excess of 15 million? We now know that we can take a vastly larger population than that «and» provide better living standards for people provided only that the Liberal Country Party coalition remains in government. I think the honourable member being a thoughtful person and ready to accept what I have said will know the extent to which I disagree with Professor Ehrlich.

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;orderBy=date-eLast;page=0;query=Ehrlich%20and%20McMahon;rec=0;resCount=Default

Meanwhile, Stephen Schneider got a letter published in the New York Times, in response to some earlier nonsense…

(Hat-tip to Real Climate for the jpg)

Categories
Australia Denial

September 8, 1990 – Australian #climate denialist spouting his nonsense…

On this day, 8 September 1990 a climate denialist called John Daly was spouting his soothing nonsense.

The worsening of the greenhouse effect is not inevitable, according to the author of The Greenhouse Trap, John Daly. Sea levels may not be rising, the planet may not be warming and studies indicate that the real increase in carbon-dioxide emission world-wide since 1850 is not the commonly reported 80 per cent but about 25 per cent, he says.

Mr Daly, a marine electronics engineer, spoke in Canberra on Saturday night [8 September] on what he calls a program of misinformation.

His recent exposure of inaccuracies in a schools’ brochure issued by the Minister for the Environment, Ros Kelly, led to its withdrawal.

Mr Daly quotes several eminent Australian scientists and many American ones as having compiled

evidence casting doubt on the existence of the greenhouse effect.

“I just want people to realise that there is some doubt,” Mr Daly said.

He says that in 20 years’ study of weather and science, particularly during the greenhouse effect’s “fashionable” period, the ’80s, he has found little to prove its existence.

Anon. 1990. Author questions greenhouse effect. Canberra Times, 10 September, p. 5.

Idiot.

On this day the PPM was 351.38. Now it is 421ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

There was a very successful campaign by over-confident and wilfully ignorant “contrarians” for decades. Daly was present at the creation.

What happened next?

The denial stuff kept on going. Old white men painted themselves into a corner and admit they were wrong. So it goes.

Categories
Australia Extinction

September 7, 1936 – The Anthropocene does for the Thylacine…

On this day, September 7, 1936, the last surviving member of the thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.

We are living through the sixth great extinction. And causing it. Hohum.

On this day the PPM was 310ish. Now it is 420ish- but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

This is not a climate event, per se, but the same mentality that exterminated the tigers, and the Tasmanian Aborigines, is at play in the destruction of life on earth.

What happened next?

The extinctions have escalated. 

And First Dog on the Moon had two excellent cartoons (the latter apologising for the former).