Category: United States of America

Categories
United States of America

September 1, 1974 – Blackbird does the Kessel run in under twelve parsecs

Fifty two years ago, on this day, September 1st, 1974,

The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).

Dromology, Virilio etc

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 329ppm. 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 was that humans have been fascinated with flight and speed for a long time, certainly long before they could do it quicker than a galloping horse or camel. They had broken the speed of sound in level flight with Chuck Yeager in 1947 and here we see a spy plane, the Blackbird moving with very, very fast.

What I think we can learn from this is that your speed is all you’ll ever need, all you’ll ever need to know. 

See also Paul Virilio and the concept of dromology. 

What happened next – oh, we’re into hypersonic weapons now…

xxx

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

September 1, 1933 – is our climate changing?

September 1, 1957 – Popular Mechanics asks “What is happening to the weather?”

September 1, 1968 – UNESCO Biosphere Conference begins in Paris

September 1, 1970 – Environmentalism is an elite-diversion tactic, says American Maoist

September 1, 1972 – “Man-Made Carbon Dioxide and the “Greenhouse Effect” published in Nature

September 1, 1980 – “Soft Underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet” article submitted

September 1, 1983- #climate change is all in the game, you feel me?

September 1, 1998 – Sydney Futures Exchange foresees a bright future. Ooops.

September 1, 2006 – Cameron signs FOE’s “Big Ask”

September 1, 2021 – XR action versus glass door of a US investment bank

Categories
Soviet Union United States of America

August 26, 1989- American and Soviet scientists call for  “environmental security alliance” to combat “catastrophic warming”

Thirty-seven years ago, on this day, August 26th,1989,

“Top Soviet and American scientists, environmentalists, policymakers, industry leaders and artists today urged President Bush and President Mikhail S. Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to form an “environmental security alliance” to reverse what they fear could be a catastrophic warming of the planet.”

“The gathering urged that the superpowers promote energy-efficient technology and phase out production and use of clorofluorocarbons no later than the year 2000. The group said the countries should “substantially reduce” carbon dioxide emissions, reduce the loss of forests and promote tree planting world wide. Participants asked that the two leaders appeal directly to their citizens to help.”

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 353ppm. 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 was that Soviet scientists had been talking about carbon dioxide build-up for as long as American ones, pretty much (it’s only 19th century physics, after all).  

The specific context was that Gorbachev had taken over the boss job in 1985, and his “pereistroika” and “glasnost” quickly ran up against various awkward realities around the culture the Bolsheviks had created, the lagging behind the US etc (so much for “we will bury you”). He was also spectacularly unlucky – Chernobyl basically killed it all off, though the whole thing staggered on for a few more years.  Anyway, in 1988 the Soviet top diplomat had been suggesting a kind of one world Eco-government body. That did not fly, obvs.

What I think we can learn from this is that the scientists knew what was at stake, how quickly action needed to happen.

What happened next  – in the second half of 1991, the Soviet Union finally disintegrated, gone like a fist when you open your palm.  

Meanwhile, the problem of carbon dioxide emissions (it’s broader than that, obvs) continued to grow…

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

Xx

References

Reinhold, R. 1989. Summit of Sorts on Global Warming. New York Times, August 27.

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: 

August 26, 1965 “Climatic Change appears to be underway, in fact.” – the 1965 commencement speech that should have rocked the world.

August 26, 1970 The Alkali Inspector’s report

August 26, 1973 – Sir Kingsley Dunham points out the C02 problem

August 26, 1991- We cannot delay says Brundtland

August 26, 2003 – Australian “plan” to save biodiversity

August 26, 2006 – First “Climate Camp” begins

Categories
United States of America

August 19, 2019 – Business Roundtable repudiates Friedman Doctrine

Seven years ago, on this day, August 19th, 2019,

August 19 2019 Friedman Doctrine repudiated by Business Roundtable

The Purpose Revolution – The Friedman Doctrine Is Out; the Stakeholder Doctrine Is In

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 412ppm. 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 was that business lobbies have always regarded environmental concerns as at best an impediment, and at worst part of an International Communist Conspiracy. Business lobbies tend to be made up of today’s successful enterprises, the insurgents chasing new technologies and new production methods don’t have the financial muscle or the spare capacity to form effective lobbying groups, and if they do, that effective lobbying group will probably get taken over by the big powerful actors wanting to make sure that nothing happens.

In the early 1970s Milton Friedman had dismissed environmental concerns by saying that they would be solved under a regime of private ownership. Friedman was well aware of the carbon dioxide issue, and I can say this confidently, because he corresponded with William Barbert, and his correspondence was published in an issue of the CO2 Newsletter. And his Friedman doctrine had basically been “greed is good and everything will work out if we just let the rich people do whatever they think is best.” This is demented. This is hardly new, but it has been at various times convenient for people, not just the rich, to believe. Let me talk to you someday about how most academics are basically the equivalent of monks arguing about angels on the head of a fucking pin.

The specific context. So why did this happen in 2019. I think the Business Roundtable realised that they were doing themselves some reputational damage by failing to pretend to give a shit, and you get this, you get business lobby groups knowing that they have to look sane and reasonable if they want to be effective. See, for example, the Australian Mining Industry Council having to change both its tune and its name after it went in so hard against the Mabo decision on Aboriginal land rights in 1992.

What I think we can learn from this

xxx

What happened next

I’ll have to look and see if the Business Roundtable has suddenly endorsed Greta Thunberg. Somehow I doubt it. 

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

August 19, 1968 – Is Man Spoiling the Weather? (yes)

August 19 1997 – “The denialists take Canberra” with “Countdown to Kyoto” conference

August 19, 2002 – Pacific Islands make unreasonable demands about continuing to live

August 19, 2002 – Bush skips the Earth Summit

Categories
Denial United States of America

August 8, 2007 – late great journalist Sharon Begley did a Q&A about climate denialism

Nineteen years ago, on this day, August 8th, 2007,

https://climateshift.com/newsweek-hoax.pdf

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 384ppm. 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 was that the climate issue had exploded back into prominence in 2006 thanks to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the coming IPCC report, the Stern review, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, Climate Campers; take your pick. There’s always a bunch of factors for a window to open. There almost, by definition, has to be.

And the denial had sprung back into life as well, funded by outfits like Exxon. See the extraordinary letter in 2006 from the Royal Society. 

What I think we can learn from this – the denialism was spotted as a Major Problem.

What happened next

Begley died too young – Sharon Begley – Wikipedia 

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

August 8, 1975 – first academic paper to use term “global warming” published 

August 8, 1990 – Ministers meet, argue for Toronto Target

August 8, 1990 – ANZEC says “adopt Toronto target” of sharp carbon cuts.

August 8, 2006 – MIT Review on “Storing Carbon Dioxide under the Ocean”

Categories
United States of America

August 7, 1977- Arthur Herzog’s “Heat” reviewed

Fifty years ago, on this day, August 7th, 1977,

Dayton Daily News,7 Aug 1977, p.182

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 333ppm. 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 was was that from the early mid 70s there had been plenty of news stories about carbon dioxide build up, and here we see Arthur Herzog, who had already written The Swarm and Earthsounds, wrote the first full-length cli-fi novel, which is not to say that climate change from carbon dioxide build up had not appeared in various short stories by Isaac Asimov, also in James Blish’s 1969 “We all die naked” and in Ursula Le Guin’s “The Lathe of Heaven.” 

The specific context was that Herzog had already had some successes!

What I think we can learn from this is that it’s now 50 years since the first full-length carbon dioxide specific cli-fi book was published, and here we are.

What happened next Herzog’s novel never got turned into a movie, which is a pity. It would have been a good one, I think.

 Research and see if you can find out more about Hertzog’s process. Keyword search: Hertzog heat genesis. Did he consult Stephen Schneider, etc. Has anyone written about this? 

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

August 7, 1933 – Elinor Ostrom born

August 7, 1979 – Cabinet Office wonk hopes to pacify greenies

August 7, 1991 – “Draft Ecology Plans released” 

August 7, 1995 – decent Australian journo reports on utter bullshit #climate economic “modelling” 

August 7, 2003 – John Howard meets with business buddies to kill climate action

August 7, 2007 – Cate Blanchett asks “Who on Earth Cares”

Categories
United States of America

August 6, 1960 – “Earth Warming Up?” asks New York Times

Sixty six ago, on this day, August 6th, 1960,

https://www.nytimes.com/1960/08/06/archives/earth-warming-up.html

This below is from another paper, off the same newswire – almost certainly the same text.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 316ppm. 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 was that from 1953 when Gilbert Plass – building on the work of John Tyndall, Svante Arhennius and Guy Callender – had pointed to the build up of carbon dioxide as a factor in warming the earth. There had been semi-frequent discussions in the United States media, and to a much lesser extent in the UK media.

The specific context was that Charles David Keeling had been taking accurate, fanatically accurate in fact, measures of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at Mauna Loa, and also in Antarctica. And it was clear that the carbon dioxide was in fact building up. What was less clear at this point was whether the earth was warming up, because the warming trend that had continued until about 1940 had gone into reverse. At the time this was postulated that this was due to the amount of sulphur dioxide being put into the atmosphere by the extraordinary volumes of coal being burned. What sulphur dioxide does is it whitens clouds, so more sunlight bounces off them before ever hitting the earth, leading to cooling. This is the albedo effect. 

What I think we can learn from this is that if you were reading the New York Times, you were therefore aware that there might be an issue with carbon dioxide. In fact, if you’re reading lots of newspapers, if you’d seen the Bell Telephone documentary Unchained Goddess, none of this was a state secret.

What happened next the New York Times kept reporting, sometimes about things getting cooler, some, but then from the late 60s onwards, pretty consistently about carbon dioxide as a threat. You can make lots of criticisms of the New York Times. I’d stand by those, but then if you think that one source is going to give you the unvarnished truth, then you’re a fool. You need to read widely. But then it becomes a question – who has the money and who has the time? I think we “pick” on establishment newspapers, especially left ones, nominally left, actually liberal ones, as gatekeepers, because we have a broader frustration that we have been unable to build an informed, engaged, and enraged civil society. 

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

August 6, 1945 – Hiroshima 

August 6, 1990 – another climate documentary shown… 

August 6, 1992 – Australian environmentalists and businesses united… in disgust at Federal bureaucrats #auspol #climate 

August 6, 2009 – Governor Paterson versus the Greenhouse Effect

Categories
United States of America

August 4, 1977- “Workshop on Anticipated Plant Responses to Global Carbon Dioxide Enrichment”

Forty nine years ago, on this day, August 4th, 1977,

Duke University in Durham, North Carolina on August 4-5, 1977 for “Workshop on Anticipated Plant Responses to Global Carbon Dioxide Enrichment”….  Five years later, on May 23-28, 1982, a similar “International Conference on Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Plant Productivity” was held in Athens, Georgia.

(Idso, 1982: 72- 73)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 333ppm. 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 was that from the mid 70s conferences, especially in the US and Europe, about carbon dioxide build up and the social, economic, biological, military implications it was becoming a known fixture on the circuit, the carousel.

The specific context was that the biologists have been banging on about CO2 build up for a long time. See, for example, 1948 Evelyn Hutchinson at the AAAS, and Lamont Cole in the 60s, and so on and so on.

What I think we can learn from this So this is a point I make regularly; You can’t just look at what the climatologists and meteorologists are saying. You also have to look at the ecologists and biologists, George Woodwell, for example.

What happened next There was another conference in 1980 andSherwood Idso wrote a truly demented article that somehow got published in Science. And this came up in the 1980 hearings, [insert quote from co2 newsletter], and Idso kept on being a nut job denialist, unable to accept that he had been wrong, so just doubled down and kept being wrong (see also Reid Bryson) until he died.

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

August 4, 1978 – “A Terminal Mesozoic ‘Greenhouse’: Lessons from the Past” 

August 4, 1980 – “Towards a Troubled 21st Century” reports Time Magazine 

August 4, 1988 – Hawke Cabinet asks for “what can we do?” report on climate.

August 4, 2004 – Australian farmers nervous about climate change. Ignored 

August 4, 2008 – Police pepper spray #climate campers 

Categories
United States of America

July 30,  2006 – Murray Bookchin dies

Twenty years ago, on this day, July  30th, 2006,

Murray Bookchin died

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 381ppm. 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 was that Bookchin was a very big deal in anarchist circles.

Murray Bookchin (/ˈbʊktʃɪn/; January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006[1]) was an American social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. Influenced by the works of G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and Peter Kropotkin,[2] he was a pioneer in the environmental movement.[3] Bookchin formulated and developed the theory of social ecology and urban planning within anarchist, libertarian socialist, and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books covering topics in politics, philosophy, history, urban affairs, and social ecology. Among the most important were Our Synthetic Environment (1962), Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), The Ecology of Freedom (1982), and Urbanization Without Cities (1987). In the late 1990s, he became disenchanted with what he saw as an increasingly apolitical “lifestylism” of the contemporary anarchist movement, stopped referring to himself as an anarchist, and founded his own libertarian socialist ideology called “communalism“, which seeks to reconcile and expand Marxist, syndicalist, and anarchist thought.[4][5]

The specific context (around climate) is that his 1965 book Crisis in Our Cities is one of the first warnings about carbon dioxide build-up to appear in mainstream American non-fiction.

On page 187 we have this – 

And this –  “Meteorologists believe that the immediate effect of increased heat leads to violent air circulation and increasingly destructive storms….  theoretically, after several centuries of fossil-fuel combustion, the increased heat of the atmosphere could even melt the polar ice caps of the earth and lead to the inundation of the continents with sea water.”

(warnings would become more stark soon, with shrunken timescales).

What I think we can learn from this- vale Murray.

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

July 30, 1968 – the UN says yes to an environment conference 

July 30, 1979 – scientists warn US Senators about synfuels and carbon dioxide build-up 

July 30, 1979 – synfuels would be sinful…

July 30, 1989 – UK Conservative politician warns “we have at most 25 years to take action.” 

July 30, 2005 – John Howard versus the climate 

Categories
United States of America

July 28, 1981 – “Will the polar icecaps melt?” (Why yes, yes they will…)

Forty five years ago, on this day, July 28, 1981, Michael Schlesinger gives a talk on “Carbon dioxide proliferation: Will the polar icecaps melt?”

https://www.atmos.illinois.edu/~schlesin/cv.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20120426140635/https://www.atmos.illinois.edu/~schlesin/cv.pdf

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 340ppm. 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 was that from the early 1950s, when Gilbert Plass (building on the work of Arrhenius and Callendar) pointed out that burning fossil fuels would lead to sea-level rise etc, scientists (many American, but also other nations) had been beavering away.  By the mid-late 1970s, it was all become clear enough for scientists to be going puce.

The specific context was the first World Climate Conference had happened in Geneva, and a flurry of meetings and conferences was also taking place. Those in the know, knew.

What I think we can learn from this – we can’t say we were not warned.

What happened next – more emissions, higher concentrations. We slipped into the Fafocene without even really understanding it.

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

See also John Mercer’s landmark 1978 article in Nature.

References

xx

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: 

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

July 28, 1990 – science writer John Gribbin explains why caution is wrong on global warming 

July 28, 1990 – American #climate denial comes to London 

July 28, 2003 – James Inhofe shares his genius 

July 28, 2005 – AP6 announced 

Categories
United States of America

July 25,  1977 – the Ironwood Daily Globe tells the truth

Forty-nine years ago, on this day, July  25th, 1977,

In reporting the “Energy and Climate” study, the Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, Michigan) ·of Mon, 25 Jul 1977 tells the truth on page 1.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 333ppm. 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 was

that newspapers had been writing stories about carbon dioxide build up for over twenty years by this point. A flurry in the 1950s, mostly around Gilbert Plass’s work and then the studies before and during the International Geophysical Year. Then frequency had dipped a bit, but picked up in the late 1960s.

The specific context was that a two year study by the National Academies of Sciences, on ‘Energy and Climate’ had been released with some fan-fair.

What I think we can learn from this – this news was not restricted to the coastal elites – those in ‘flyover country’ were aware too,

What happened next

There was an effort to get the carbon dioxide issue onto the agenda by a host of scientists (and also the geologist William Barbat). It failed not because they weren’t smart or talented enough, but because, well Thatcher, but then Reagan and his goons. It was not until 1988 that the problem finally became an issue.

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

Xx

References

xx

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: 

July 25, 1977 – New York Times front page story “scientists foresee serious climate changes”

July 25, 1989 – “Mineral Fuel Alternatives and the Greenhouse Effect” 

July 25, 1989 – Australian Environment Minister admits was blocked by Treasurer on emissions reduction target 

July 25, 1996 – Australian PM John Howard as fossil-fuel puppet 

July 25, 1997 – US says, in effect, “screw our promises, screw the planet” 

July 25, 2001 – Australian Environment Minister says the quiet part out loud about Kyoto 

July 25, 2008 – More economic “modelling” against an emissions trading scheme