Twenty three years ago, on this day, September 2nd, 2002, soon-to-be-obvious-war criminal Tony Blair was blathering on about “sustainability”.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 373ppm. As of 2025, 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 Blair was in full messianic mode (a frightening thing to behold) and behind the scenes involved heavily in the plan to attack Iraq.
The specific context was that it was ten years since the Rio Earth Summit, and Johannesburg was the place to be (unless you were George Bush, obvs).
What I think we can learn from this is that messianic sorts like Blair are very happy to bullshit on about technology. It’s part of their “I am a god” complex.
What happened next – Technology saved us about as much as Bush and Blair “liberated” Iraq.
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:
September 2,1972 – BBC Radio speaks of “A Finite Earth” – All Our Yesterdays
September 2, 1972 – Adelaide FOE asks “is technology a blueprint for destruction?” (Spoiler – ‘yes’)
September 2, 1994 – International Negotiating Committee 10th meeting ends
September 2, 2002- Peter Garrett argues “community action” vs #climate change