Category: United Nations

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International processes Sweden United Nations

December 13, 1967 – Sweden begins to save the world…

On this day in 1967, Swedish diplomats proposed a big international conference on the (human) environment. It would happen, 4 and a half years later, in Stockholm…

“It was during this autumn of surging environmental awareness that three influential Swedes engaged with the United Nations—Inga Thorsson, Alva Myrdal and Sverker Åström—concluded that Sweden should pursue a UN conference on the human environment. To this end, a proposal was put forward at the [United Nations General Assembly] on December 13, 1967 by Börje Billner, Deputy Head of the Swedish UN Mission,”

Paglia, E. (2021) The Swedish initiative and the 1972 Stockholm Conference: the decisive role of science diplomacy in the emergence of global environmental governance. HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2021) 8:2 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00681-x

Billner’s statement included this

“The impact of the technological revolution that is taking place around us is felt by all peoples, irrespective of their present technological level. It has far-reaching effects on the environment of man. The human body and the human mind are subjected to serious and ever-increasing inconveniences and dangers. These are caused by air pollution, water pollution, sulfur fall-out waste, etc. – in short by all the secondary effects related to the process of industrialization and urbanization”

The context was this – everyone was starting to get freaked out about possible global (as opposed to ‘merely’ local environmental issues.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide was roughly 322ppm (it’s now 418ish).

Why this matters

We’ve been talking about doing something for a very long time. It’s almost as if talking and knowledge isn’t the problem…

What happened next

The usual – a gabfest. It gave us UNEP, and also got the climate ball rolling…

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UNFCCC United Nations

November 25, 2000 – CoP meeting ends in official disarray…

On this day, November 25, 2000, the global climate negotiations in the Hague collapsed without a formal end of the conference, which had to be “continued” in Bonn the following year. You can read all about it here 

COP6 had seen various protests (see here)  by direct action types, who, in those far-off innocent pre-September 11 days even managed to storm the main stage,  and also some of the first discussions of “climate justice”

The Australian business lobby was there in force, of course – 

“Business is scared the Europeans will get their way at The Hague, and that Australia won’t get the sinks or other concessions that would allow it to go on polluting as long as it planted trees or took other measures. Australian industry has a big team at The Hague: on the government delegation will be John Eyles from the Australian Greenhouse Industry Network, and Maria Robertson from Comalco will be on the New Zealand delegation. And there are observers from the BCA, Rio Tinto, ICF Kaiser, Origin Energy, ACL, Woodside Energy, the Australian Gas Association, the Aluminium Council, BHP, Hancock NRG, the ACCI and others.”

Clennell, A. 2000. Taking Care Of Business. Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November, p.15.

[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 369ppm. At time of writing it was 416ppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]

The context was this. Three years previously rich nations had grudgingly agreed a piss-weak “Kyoto Protocol”, but that still hadn’t been ratified by the USA (was never gonna get through the Senate) or Australia.  Earlier that month George Bush had been selected by the supreme court, after losing the popular vote (who remembers ‘hanging chads’?)

Why this matters. 

It was all clear, and protesters were doing their best, 22 years ago.

What happened next?

The COP circus has kept going (you may have noticed). The Kyoto Protocol finally became live  in 2005, after a Russian quid pro quo for WTO membership.  The follow-up (Copenhagen) went down in flames. Then the French came up with a “pledge and review” compromise. Guess what, nobody is really pledging, and nobody is reviewing…This was all predictable, and indeed predicted.

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Science Scientists United Nations

October 23, 1963 – JKF warns of actions “which can irreversibly alter our biological and physical environment on a global scale.” 

On this day, October 23 in 1963, President John F Kennedy gave a speech about what we now might call production science and impact science https://era.org.au/capitalism-and-production-science-vs-impact-science/ – 

At an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the country’s most esteemed scientific body, the National Academy of Sciences, [Kennedy] also conveyed a warning about America’s responsibility to control the effects of scientific study: “For, as science investigates the natural environment, it also modifies it – and that modification may have incalculable consequences, for evil as well as for good. [S]cience today has the power for the first time in history to undertake experiments with premeditation which can irreversibly alter our biological and physical  environment on a global scale.” Kennedy chided the scientists, saying that every time they came up with a  major invention, politicians had to invent new institutions to cope with them.

(Hamblin, 2013: 147)

 

[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 315.99ppm. At time of writing it was 421ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]

The context was this – 

The previous year, Kennedy had read Silent Spring, and been through the Cuban Missile Crisis. Both spoke to armageddon (slow and fast). The partial test ban treaty, banning atmospheric explosions of nuclear weapons had, two weeks earlier, become A Thing. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_Nuclear_Test_Ban_Treaty

Why this matters. 

Had Kennedy not gone to Dallas, maybe things would have been different? Or maybe not! Lunchtime counter-factuals, eh…

What happened next?

Kennedy went to Dallas.

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United Nations United States of America

July 28, 1970 – American journalist warns about melting the icecaps…

On this day, July 28 1970 “[Journalist Claire] Sterling began an article in the Washington Post with an air of crisis, reporting breathlessly prior to the Stockholm meeting:

“Scientists still aren’t sure how much carbon dioxide we can inject into the atmosphere before heating it up enough to melt the polar icecaps, how much smog can cut off the sun’s rays without bringing a new Ice Age upon us, how many germs per cubic centimetre of water we can swallow and live, how much better or worse off the human race would actually be for using or banning DDT.”

Sterling, C. 1970. The UN and World Pollution, Washington Post, Times Herald, 28 July

.

I found this quote on page 200 of a rather excellent book called “Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism” by Jacob Darwin Hamblin

Why this matters. 

Yes. 1970.

What happened next?

The 1972 Stockholm Conference did less than it might have for climate science, but the scientists kept going.

Sterling wrote a totally beserk book called “The Real Terror Network”, which influenced the senile Ronald Reagan and the professional paranoids around him –

As per Wikipedia

“The book was read and appreciated by Alexander Haig and William Casey, but its arguments were dismissed by the CIA’s Soviet analysts; Lincoln Gordon, one of three members of a senior review panel at the CIA charged, at Casey’s request, with bringing non-intelligence professional and academic review to the agency, discovered comparing CIA intelligence reports and the book that at least some of Sterling’s claims had come from stories that the CIA itself had planted in the Italian press.”

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United Nations

April 17, 2007 – UN Security Council finally discusses the most important security issue of all…

On April 17 2007, the United Kingdom Government managed to get climate change onto the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. I haven’t bothered to check, but this probably didn’t particularly please the George W. Bush administration. Bush by then, thought  was a lame duck, and had been really, ever since the utterly ineffectual response to Hurricane Katrina had crashed his credibility. 

Stepping back, it’s hilarious (if you are mordant enough) that the global body designated as being  about concerned about security, should not talk about climate change until 2007, 20 years after the issue broke through into the world stage.  But then, really the United Nations Security Council is nothing more than a Polaroid of the world in 1945 And would need a serious overhaul, but that’s not gonna happen.

Why this matters. 

The question of climate change, forever in the too-hard basket, is routinely kept away from the agenda, if it possibly can be. The (shit)show must go on, eh?  Anyone who has any faith in our Lords and Masters has either not been paying any attention, is as thick as mince, or is doing some motivated reasoning. These are not mutually exclusive categories…

What happened next?

Nothing, except more carbon dioxide.

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Australia International processes Predatory delay UNFCCC United Nations United States of America

Feb 25 1992- business groups predict economic chaos if action is taken on #climate

On 25th of February 1992 20 business associations from nine different countries try to slow down progress towards the impending Rio Earth Summit agreements by predicting economic calamity and doom: the same old story. 

1992 On 25 February at UN headquarters (New York City, USA), 20 business associations from 9 countries released a joint statement to the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change….

Anon. 1992. International Business Associations Issue Statement on Climate Negotiations. Global Environmental Change. Vol. 4, No. 5 13 March.

You will be shocked, shocked to learn that Australian business interests were in that mix – “The business associations, nearly half of which are from Australia, are in the fields of fossil fuel and energy production, manufacturing, and metals.”

Why this matters

We need to remember that whenever governments and state institutions are forced to consider the long-term well-being of constituents/future generations, there will be short termist vested interests pushing in the opposite direction. That’s just the way it is. 

What happened next

A weakened Earth Summit. Treaty text was put forward, not entirely due to business interest, but also the US administration of George HW Bush in June of 1992. This was then ratified and then gave us the COPs for climate and biodiversity. Meanwhile, the carbon dioxide accumulates, the biodiversity collapse accelerates. And to young folk out there, I’m sorry. We old fuckers, we blew it. You have every right to feel betrayed and gaslit let down by your parents and your grandparents

The business associations? They’re singing differently, but the song remains the same…

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UNFCCC United Nations

Jan 27, 1989: UN General Assembly starts talking #climate

January 27 1989. On this day, the United Nations General Assembly passed the first agreement about a climate change treaty. It was propounded by Malta. And it led to a series of ministerial meetings now long forgotten in places like the Hague, Bergen, and so forth, with the second World Climate Conference in Geneva in late 1990 becoming a venue for political manouevres too. The UNFCCC process that began in January of 1991 and culminated in Rio in June of 1992. 

Why this matters? 

Small island states have been banging on about the problem of sea level rise for a long time. And they’ve been humored, patronized, condescended, ignored, whether they’re in the Caribbean, the South Pacific, or even really, the Mediterranean. 

What happened next.

INCs, Summits, 26 COPs (and counting) and countless other gabfests. If well-meaning (sometimes) talk saved the world…

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UNFCCC United Nations

2005, January 13: UN Secretary-General calls for “decisive measures” on climate change

On this day, 17 years ago, the UN Secretary-General called for “decisive measures” on climate change. 

“PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS, 13 January — The United Nations Conference convened here to address the economic and environmental vulnerabilities of small island developing States opened its high-level segment today, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan calling for ‘decisive measures’ against climate change and a global early warning system in the wake of last month’s Asian tsunami disaster.”

[Link]

What happened next.  Oh, lots of decisive measures.  And if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you, in Sydney.

Why it matters. People keep investing hope in these international processes, as if someone is gonna arrive to save them. God help us all (see what I did there?). What Annan could have said was “The UNFCCC process is a farce. The lack of targets and timetables in the Framework Convention – because of Uncle Sam doing what Uncle Sam always does – means it’s a relentless talking shop.  Probably in 16 years they’ll still be holding ‘last chance to save the planet’ meetings. I mean, wtaf.