Category: Australia

Categories
Australia Predatory delay Renewable energy

June 18, 2004 – Australian government lobbied about renewables. Again

Twenty two years ago, on this day, June 18th, 2004.  

Environmentalists today urged the government to do more to develop renewable energy technologies, amid news that Australia had been branded the world’s worst greenhouse gas polluter.

Green groups and industry associations held a crisis meeting in Canberra to develop an urgent action plan for the environment ahead of the federal election.

 AAP, 2004. Australia branded worst greenhouse polluter. Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/18/1087245104076.html

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 377ppm. 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 for this was that from the 1950s Australia had had some renewables industries around solar, hot water heating and some very basic wind turbines, and that with appropriate support and funding that could have exploded, but of course, it would then have been a competitor to the coal lobby and to big centralised outfits like ETSA and so on.

And so the CSIRO funding got cut. (See Mark Diesendorf on this).

In 1994-95 there had been a proposal for a carbon tax at a federal level in Australia, and there would have been hypothecated funding available for renewable energy. The carbon tax was defeated, and the money therefore never arrived. And in 1997, ahead of the Kyoto conference, Prime Minister John Howard had had to make empty promises about a mandatory renewable energy target for Australia. He had, then, having got what he wanted at Kyoto, deliberately slow-walked this and muddied the waters until it all became largely futile. You can read about it in Clive Hamilton’s Running from the Storm. 

The specific context was that in 2003 Howard had gathered his mates together, the Low Emissions Technologies Advisory Group and demanded their help in squashing renewables, though this didn’t emerge until late 2004. Meanwhile, in the lead up to the 2004 energy white paper, which was a gift to the fossil fuel lobby, we see this sort of lobbying trying to get support for renewables. 

What I think we can learn is this: the good guys lose. Everybody knows the war is over and that John Howard is a fucking criminal. That’s I mean, that’s it, really, that’s the post. 

What happened next: emissions kept climbing.

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

References

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: 

June 18, 1972 – Patrick White becomes a reluctant greenie activist

June 18, 1976- UK Meteorological Office explains things to Cabinet Office

June 18, 1984- OECD holds conference on “environment and economics”

 June 18, 2013 – Feeble ’Wind Fraud’ rally in Canberra

June 18, 2015 – Power station petition – All Our Yesterdays

June 18, 2008 – Carbon Capture and Storage is going to save Australia. Oh yes. – All Our Yesterdays

Categories
anti-reflexivity Australia Denial

June 17, 2007 – “Carbon Sense” to the world

Nineteen years ago, on this day, June 17th, 2007, 

“Carbon Sense Coalition is a voluntary group of people concerned about the extent to which carbon is wrongly vilified in Western societies, particularly in government, the media, and in business circles. We aim to restore balance and reason to the carbon debate, and to explain and defend the key role of carbon in production of most of our energy for heat, light, and transportation, and all of our food.”

June 17th, 2007 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 384ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 432ppm. 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 for this was from the late 1980s in Australia and elsewhere, and the United States especially, there was an active – what’s the word phrase I’m looking for,? – fucking stupid climate denial movement, or bunch of individuals occasionally coalescing as a “movement” in the Australian context that would be people like John Daly with his demented book the Greenhouse Trap. Daly died in 2004 and also outfits like the so called Lavoisier group. 

The specific context was that the carbon dioxide build up issue had been actively suppressed by John Howard as Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007.

But this had become impossible for Howard to do in late 2006; the issue just burst onto the scene again thanks to the endless, or seemingly endless, Millennium drought, Al Gore and his film An Inconvenient Truth, ratification of Kyoto Protocol, leading to new UN negotiations, social movement activism like Climate Camp in the United Kingdom and so forth. Then you had new Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, having toppled Kim Beasley, using the climate issue as a stick to beat John Howard with, especially over ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which Australia had famously not done.

Therefore it was clear that the climate issue would be live for another year or two, at least (in the end, it was until 2011). 

What I think we can learn is this: So here you have a bunch of intellectual inadequates giving themselves the title ‘carbon sense’, which is, of course, a play on common sense. And this invocation of common sense tells you a lot in the same way that it was common sense, that the world was flat, that women shouldn’t vote, that black people should be slaves, that blood letting made you stronger, etc, etc, that kind of common sense. 

What happened next: I am sure they are still around. Gaia help us all.

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

References

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: 

June 17, 1957 – Guy Callendar writes more truth bombs – “On the Amount of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere”

June 17, 1994 – Moron versus physics. Sorry, “Moran” – All Our Yesterdays

June 17, 2009 – Blistering speech about how “The Climate Nightmare is Upon Us” by Christine Milne – All Our Yesterdays

Categories
Australia Carbon Capture and Storage

June 16, 2012 – Lenore Taylor versus CCS

Fourteen years ago, on this day, June 16th, 2012, Australian journalist Lenore Taylor, took stock of CCS in an article called “Climate strategy up in smoke.”

IT WAS the technology that was going to help underpin the nation’s climate change strategy. In 2009, the then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, pledged to ”lead the world” in carbon capture and storage technology, which traps carbon dioxide emissions, permanently storing them deep underground. 

 Taylor, L. (2012) Climate strategy up in smoke. Sydney Morning Herald June 16th

http://www.smh.com.au/national/climate-strategy-up-in-smoke-20120615-20f7i.html

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 394ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 432ppm. 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 for this was that in Australia, CCS had first popped up in the late 1990s in the Geodisc programme, and then a couple of years later, post Kyoto, in the efforts of the Prime Minister’s Science and Industry Council, then chaired by Robin Batterham, who was part time and the rest of its time, who was the chief technology officer of Rio Tinto. And then from 2004 onwards, there had been a series of announcements and conferences and legislation about CCS, the Queensland Government had pushed for it as well under Premier Peter Beattie. Also you’d had Kevin Rudd in 2007 Eight, using CCS as a way of keeping coal miners on side while still attracting liberals, small l liberal voters and those concerned about the environment, thus CCS performed the function of squaring the circle.

The specific context was that the physics didn’t add up, the money didn’t add up, and it all fell over in late 2010 and here we see Lenore Taylor, who had been covering climate since the early 1990s, writing about how it all fell over.

What I think we can learn is this: fantasy eventually meets reality and there’ll be a smart somebody there to report on that, usually, hopefully… 

What happened next: CCS has staggered on because it’s too useful, and in fact, it’s pretty much the only story that the coal industry has to tell, though there’s also all this shit about or there was this HELE – “high emissions, low efficiency” (sic) power plants, and the money that the Australian Coal Association put aside was repurposed to publicise the coal industry. And meanwhile, Gorgon, the Chevron CCS facility, has continued to massively underperform.

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

References

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: 

June 16, 1965 – Rothschild writes to Lovelock – All Our Yesterdays

June 16, 1971 – “Ecology Action” formed in Sydney. – All Our Yesterdays

June 16, 1972 – David Bowie and (Five Years until) the End of the World. Also, Stockholm – All Our Yesterdays

June 16, 1994 – Australian business want international allies – All Our Yesterdays

June 16, 2000 – Energy the Changing Climate report released – All Our Yesterdays

Categories
Australia Business Responses

June 15, 1973 – Mobil propaganda

Fifty three years ago, on this day, June 15th, 

The Adelaide Advertiser runs a full page ad (not for the first or last time) from Mobil Oil company, trying to insinuate that Mobil gives a flying fuck about Australia, and to get readers to build a connection between buying Mobil and being a Real Australian.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 329ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 432ppm. 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 for this was that we are marinated in all forms of propaganda. As per the late Alex Carey,

“The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance. The growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda against democracy.” 

The specific context was that with the coming of drilling in the Bass Strait for oil and gas, multinationals stepped up their propaganda, sorry “advertising” effort.

What I think we can learn is this: the marinating has been going on for so long. I think we’re cooked, in fact.

What happened next: The propaganda has been constantly topped up. Like the sheep in Animal Farm, endlessly bleating, to stop any chance of independent thought.

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

“Why are they lying to our children?” – what a 40 year old propaganda campaign can tell us about today (and tomorrow’s) cultural battles. #Climate #CorporatePropaganda

References

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: 

June 15, 1947 – Control the rain and you will reign!!

June 15, 1991 – Pinatubo erupts – All Our Yesterdays

June 15, 1994 – Canberra Times soils itself by publishing denialist claptrap

The Guardian holds a climate summit. We. Are. Saved. June 15, 2009.

Categories
Australia

June 11, 2005 – ACF calls for deep cuts. Ignored.

Twenty one years ago, on this day, June 11th, the Australian Conservation Foundation called for deep cuts…

ACF calls for national deep cuts target on greenhouse

Date: 11-Jun-2005

The Australian Conservation Foundation today urged a national commitment to a target of cutting greenhouse pollution by 60% by 2050 and a framework of immediate practical action, following commitments by the NSW Premier to this target and the expansion of gas and renewables to meet electricity needs in that state.

ACF Executive Director, Don Henry, said the NSW target of a 60% cut by 2050 matched that adopted by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and the advice of Australia’s former Chief Scientist, and should offer important common ground for the national working group on climate change established at last week’s COAG. 

http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/13467/20120118-0823/www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news6a66.html?news_id=608

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 380ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 432ppm. 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 for this was that the Australian Conservation Foundation had been aware of CO2 build up since the early 70s, there had been articles in its magazine Habitat. And from 1988 onwards, it had been pushing on carbon dioxide build up as a severe problem. But then under Liberal Prime Minister John Howard (1996-2007), it had become impossible to get anything happening, really. All you could do was release reports showing how important carbon dioxide was as a problem and that there were economic steps that could be taken that wouldn’t cause havoc, and these would largely be ignored as this one was. 

What I think we can learn is this: is that it really does matter for the speed and rollout of technology, who is making the government decisions and what messages they’re sending everyone else. 

What happened next: Well, in 2006 ACF repeated a trick that it and other organisations including the Wentworth group and WWF had tried. They got together with a bunch of businesses and released a joint report. This was in April 2006 and it was kind of the beginning of the end of the silence. John Howard was accumulating wounds and enemies and bleeding credibility, and then later on, in 2006 the issue broke through, and it spelt the end for Howard.

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: 

June 11, 1986 – Washington Post sees a “Dire Forecast for ‘Greenhouse Earth’”

June 11, 1997 – US ambassador says Australia should stop being so awful on #climate 

June 11, 2003 – US and Australian think tanks conspire vs (pluralist) democracy 

June 11, 2011 – miners want more compensation

Categories
Australia

June 6, 1990 – ACF, BCA and ACTU hold hands

On this day, June 6th, greenies, business and trades unions hold hands…

“Weather forecast for the world of our children”. 

Address to the joint Australian Conservation Foundation/ Business Council of Australia/ Australian Council of Trade Unions forum on sustainable development in Melbourne on 6 June 1990

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 354ppm.  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 for this was that there had been periodic flashes of warning about carbon dioxide build up through the 70s and early 80s, but the issue had really exploded in 1988 especially in Australia, (related to ozone depletion and so forth). And what you saw was a whole bunch of organisations scrambling to catch up.  

The specific context was that here you see we’re still in the “hold hands and sing Kumbaya and have a collective response” phase, while the Business Council of Australia, was beginning to flex its muscles on counting the perceived costs it hadn’t yet publicly broken bad. Meanwhile, the ACTU had released a couple of nice sounding reports and. But the ACTU problem was that they allowed the CFMEU (not called that yet) to dominate the Union response. So, the mining union, in bed with the owners of the mines, decided that coal exports and coal mining were more important than well anything else 

Meanwhile, the Australian Conservation Foundation was having a good time of it, with loads of Members, loads of money, loads of publicity, looking sexy.  That went well.

What I think we can learn is this:  there is always, there’s often a brief period within a policy window, or part of the issue attention cycle, when organisations who were enemies and will be enemies again, stand on a stage and say the nice stuff. And at the moment, maybe they even believe that nice stuff (or they hope it will become true anyway). 

What happened next:  The BCA started pushing harder and harder against any climate responses. The ACTU continued to allow the coal miners union to dominate its response.  The ACF went along with the Ecologically Sustainable Development policy process, all the while knowing that it would probably end in tears. And yes, indeed, it did, in fact, end in tears. 

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

References

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: 

June 6, 1977 – German scientist Hermann Flohn asks “Whither the Atmosphere and the Earth’s climate?” – All Our Yesterdays

June 6, 1978 – Exxon presentation about carbon dioxide build-up

June 6, 1988 – Scientists say we are entering a new phase

Categories
Activism Australia Coal

June 5, 2006 – Rising Tide boat blockade

Nineteen years ago, on this day, June 5th, 2006, 70 brave people put their bodies on the line…

June 5, 2006, and Nov. 3, 2007: Rising Tide boat blockades of Newcastle port

On June 5, 2006, in a Rising Tide Australia action, 70 people used small boats to blockade the port of Newcastle, Australia, which exports 80 million tons of coal each year. The protest aimed to call attention to a planned expansion that would allow the port to export twice that amount.[1] The action was repeated by 100 people on Nov. 3, 2007: at this second action, participants attempted to block ships from entering the port for four hours, but police boats managed to escort three ships into the port. At one point, a police jetski rammed one woman’s kayak, resulting in her hospitalization.[2][3]

Citizen action and protests against coal in Australia – Global Energy Monitor

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 382ppm. As of 2026 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that all the petitions, marches and begging of politicians had not worked. Emissions climbed, fossil intensive infrastructure projects kept getting approved (and still get approved).

The specific context was that the Howard government (like the Keating and Hawke governments before it) had mouthed occasional platitudes about “the environment” but were hell-bent on saying yes to whatever fossil extraction and export was proposed. 

What I think we can learn from this is that brave people have had the foresight and clarity – it hasn’t been enough. What was needed was broad-based movements. Oh well…

What happened next was that the exports and burning went on, the emissions and concentrations went up and up. The mainstream politicians have mostly given up pretending to give a shit.

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.

Also on this day: 

June 5, 1963  – JFK says yes to SST – All Our Yesterdays

June 5, 1967 –  Working Group on Atmospheric Pollution and Atmospheric Chemistry – All Our Yesterdays

June 5, 1993 and 2011- let’s have a march for #climate… It will make us feel good. – All Our Yesterdays

June 5, 1994 – that referendum idea is back again… – All Our Yesterdays

June 5, 2000 – Liberals pushback against Kyoto, a UN conspiracy… – All Our Yesterdays

June 5, 2001 – NSW Premier Bob Carr promises a climate advertising blitz – All Our Yesterdays

June 5, 2006 – IPA sets up astroturf outfit – All Our Yesterdays

Categories
Australia UNFCCC

June 4,  1992 – Australia signs the UNFCCC

On this day June 4,  1992

Australian signs the UNFCCC R Kelly (Minister for the Arts, Sport, the Environment and Territories), Australia signs UNCED climate change convention, 

media release, 4 June 1992.

and

The opposition’s delegate to UNCED in 1992, for example, had criticized the Labor Government’s willingness to give away Australia’s sovereign rights and had emphasized the debilitative economic costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.48 CPD, Senate, 4 June 1992, p. 3350.

Matt McDonald, 2005 Fair Weather Friend

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 356ppm.  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 for this was that Australian political elites had been warned about climate change from the 1970s onwards, but it had only taken action when forced to and initially, for example, at The Hague in 1989 had made the right noises.

The specific context was that by the time Ros Kelly went to Rio, there had been fierce battles against doing anything substantive on climate change, and most of those battles, frankly, had already been won before December 1991, when Keating toppled Hawke. But the coup de grace was Paul Keating becoming Prime Minister and setting fire to any remaining proposals or hopes that Australia would respond adequately as part of the international effort.  Keating just thought it was a load of green crap.

Keating should have been at Rio; e was the only OECD leader not to go, and he sent Kelly instead. 

What I think we can learn is this:  that other futures were possible, but they didn’t happen, and Paul Keating is as responsible for, frankly, the destruction of Australia, thanks to carbon dioxide build up as the more public villain, John Howard.   

What happened next: Kelly continued in post for a couple more years, but was brought down by the so-called sports rorts scandal. She was married to, perhaps is married to, some guy who was at the head of Westpac and Westpac did that ridiculous case for early business action on climate change in April of 2006 the emissions climbed. The concentrations climbed, the impacts began to arrive. 

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

September 4, 1990 – Industry whines about environment minister’s speech

October 13, 1990/97 – Ros Kelly defends the Interim Planning Target vs Australia does nothing

January 28, 1992 – Ros Kelly versus Industry commission on greenhouse plans

April 26, 1992 – Ros Kelly abjures a carbon tax

References

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: 

June 4, 1979 – Daily Mail reports on climate change without losing its mind – All Our Yesterdays

June 4, 1984 – John Houghton of the Met Office wants research – All Our Yesterdays

June 4 , 1989, 1992, 1996 – from frantic concern to contempt for everyone’s future…

June 4, 1998 – A New South Wales premier signs a carbon credit trade…

 June 4, 2001 – Australians ‘get’ climate change (??) – All Our Yesterdays

Categories
Australia

June 2, 2012 – RIP Deni Greene

On this day June 2nd, 2012 Deni Greene died.

Greene had done some of the early economic modelling (1990) about how Australia could cut emissions and better off. The work was ignored, and then swamped by corporate bullshit…

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 394ppm.  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 for this was that  Deni Greene had come to Australia at some point in the 70s or 80s as an economist and in the battles over the economic responses to the greenhouse effect, as it was then called, in 1989-91 did a lot of economic modelling, especially around energy efficiency, to show that it would be possible and in fact beneficial, to take strong action. The pro-coal ministries were not impressed, partly, I think, because of the argument, probably also because she was, in fact, only a woman. 

And by 91 PricewaterhouseCoopers had been commissioned to release or to produce a whole bunch of other reports, and the modelling wars were underway. 

What I think we can learn is this: it’s now almost 40 years of failure on climate change, and we seem to have learned nothing, and we seem to be incapable of learning anything, if at the micro, meso or macro level. But pretty soon, we will be learning – and the lesson today is how to die.  

What happened next:  I don’t know what Greene did with the rest of her life, after the early 90s, but it must have been pretty painful to watch all the shit unfold, but that is what happens to people, isn’t it,

Vale Deni Greene – consumer representative

The Bob Brown Foundation has set up the ‘Deni Greene’ awards, btw.

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

March 3, 1990 – ” “A greenhouse energy strategy : sustainable energy development for Australia” launched … ignored #auspol

September 5, 1990 – Australian Environment Minister promises deep carbon cuts – “easy”…

October 4, 1990 – “Verdict on our efficiency: we must try harder”

References

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).

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: 

June 2, 1986 – US Senators get going on climate

June 2, 1977 – Australian scientists SCOPE the climate problem – All Our Yesterdays

June 2, 1989 – “James Hansen versus the World” – good article on actual #climate consensus let down by title

June 2, 2002 – Low carbon spaces, eh… SDC RIP – All Our Yesterdays

June 2, 2005 – Climate change will not, in fact, be Terminated – All Our Yesterdays

Categories
Australia

June 1, 2008 – Shadow environment minister jumps from plane.

Eighteen years ago on this day June 1,  a real stunt filled the airwaves.

Shadow minister throws himself out of a plane

https://www.greghunt.com.au/PDF/flinderscommunity2008/GHSpring2008Community.pdf

And 

By Glen Atwell

FLINDERS MP Greg Hunt joined Australia’s oldest parachutist, Jim Brierley, in a parachute jump over Tooradin at the weekend to highlight the freefall of Australia’s solar industry.

83-year-old Mr Brierley lives at Phillip Island in the Flinders electorate and wrote to Mr Hunt earlier this year, inviting him to skydive with the Tooradin-based Commando Skydivers.

Mr Hunt accepted the invitation immediately.

“I leapt at the chance. I had done a static-line parachute jump – where the parachute opens automatically – when I was about 17 but had always wanted to experience a skydive,” he said.

Mr Hunt, who made the jump with tandem master Dave Boulter, described the experience as “sheer exhilaration”.

“We were lucky in that the day was pretty overcast but we managed to find a break in the clouds that lasted just long enough for me to make the jump.

“We jumped from 7000 feet, which was above the cloud level, and dived through the clouds for about 20 seconds before we activated the parachute. Twenty seconds doesn’t sound like a long time but it’s an eternity when you are hurtling towards the ground at something like 120 miles an hour. It is sheer exhilaration. I loved every second of it.

“Jim jumped out of the plane just before me and made an effortless landing, He is an amazing gentleman and an inspiration to us all.”

Mr Hunt used the jump to highlight the plight of the solar panel industry which he said has been sent into freefall since the Rudd Government imposed a means test on the popular solar panel rebate scheme.

BERNARD KEANE ON “PERPETUAL PRESENT” AND PETER GARRETT

Oddly, this is the Greg Hunt who throughout 2008 opportunistically joined the Greens in bagging Garrett for not rolling the solar panels program out quickly enough, after Garrett introduced a means test on the solar panel rebate to slow the remarkable demand for the program.  In June 2008, Hunt went skydiving — anyone remember that? — to demonstrate that the solar industry was in “freefall — but unlike me it doesn’t have a soft landing ahead of it”.

Peter Garrett and the perpetual present of politics

Also Hunt on the Great Barrier Reef…

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 385ppm.  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 for this was that Australian political elites had been aware of the carbon dioxide problem since the 1970s but had not really done anything until forced to by a combination of scientific lobbying and especially public pressure, which exploded in 1988. And in 1990 a student, I think, at University of Melbourne, did his honours thesis on carbon pricing, and 18 years later, that student was the shadow Environment Minister Greg Hunt,

The specific context was that there had been fierce battles over Emissions Trading/ putting a price on carbon dioxide. And from the end of 2006 onwards, there had been running open battles. By mid 2008 the conservative Party, the Liberal party’s fragile consensus on the need to respond to carbon dioxide build up was beginning to fracture. They were still under the leadership, such as it was of Brendan Nelson, but Malcolm Turnbull was waiting in the wings as leader of the opposition.

What I think we can learn is this:  these stupid stunts, they are not cupid stunts, but something else we learned that politicians will do pretty much anything for a headline. 

What happened next:  

A month later, the retreat began…

Malcolm Turnbull became leader of the opposition and tried to forge some sort of deal with Kevin Rudd, the Labor Prime Minister. But Rudd was too much enjoying watching Turnbull twist in the wind, and so carbon pricing did not get passed, and Tony Abbott became leader of the opposition, and then, God help us, Prime Minister. And was a complete failure, but he can point to having abolished the carbon price as his signal achievement. Hunt was Minister for the Environment in this and brought about a shadow Emissions Trading Scheme. (See Leonore Taylor in the Guardian for more on this).

On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

April 18, 2013, Liberal Party bullshit about “soil carbon” revealed to be bullshit

August 27, 2013 – absurd claim of Nobel-prize winners’ support for Liberal non-policy is debunked.

References

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: 

June 1, 1965 – Tom Lehrer warns “don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air”

June 1, 1969 – “The Future is a Cruel Hoax” Commencement address – All Our Yesterdays

June 1, 1970 – Public Relations versus Democracy and Ecology – All Our Yesterdays

June 1, 1989 – Tony Blair versus carbon pricing – All Our Yesterdays

June 1, 1992 – “environmental extremists” want to shut down the United States, says President Bush

June 1, 2011 – Japanese office workers into short sleeves to save the planet