On this day, 27 September 1988, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher surprised everyone by going full-Greta, and so really kicking off the 1988 to 1992 “window” around climate change.
For generations, we have assumed that the efforts of mankind would leave the fundamental equilibrium of the world’s systems and atmosphere stable. But it is possible that with all these enormous changes (population, agricultural, use of fossil fuels) concentrated into such a short period of time, we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of this planet itself.
Recently three changes in atmospheric chemistry have become familiar subjects of concern. The first is the increase in the greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons—which has led some [end p4] to fear that we are creating a global heat trap which could lead to climatic instability. We are told that a warming effect of 1°C per decade would greatly exceed the capacity of our natural habitat to cope. Such warming could cause accelerated melting of glacial ice and a consequent increase in the sea level of several feet over the next century. This was brought home to me at the Commonwealth Conference in Vancouver last year when the President of the Maldive Islands reminded us that the highest part of the Maldives is only six feet above sea level. The population is 177,000. It is noteworthy that the five warmest years in a century of records have all been in the 1980s—though we may not have seen much evidence in Britain!
On the same day,
“Eduard Schevardnadze, then Soviet Foreign Minister, made a stronger speech to the [United Nations General Assembly] on 27 September 1988, where he proposed that UNEP should be transformed into ‘an environmental council capable of taking effective decisions to ensure ecological security’.”
On this day September 27 1962 the hugely influential book “Silent Spring” was published.
It had already been serialised in the New Yorker from June.
Carson’s book is regarded as the starting gun for public awareness of the dangers of technology-driven economic growth (what is now known as “The Great Acceleration” in some circles).
Industry’s response was predictable, involving heavy-handed satire and attempted smears (Carson was a lesbian, Carson was only a woman and therefore emotional and unreliable etc etc).
(Btw, see Hoffman and Ocasio (2001) Not All Events Are Attended Equally: Toward a Middle-Range Theory of Industry Attention to External Events)
On this day the PPM was 316.25 ppm. Now it is 421ish – but see here for the latest.
Why this matters.
If you stick your head above the parapet and say that what seems normal is actually deeply problematic, expect trouble. (That is not to say you deserve it, or should accept it, but you’d be wise to expect it).
What happened next?
Well, in the short-term, the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 almost solved all of humanity’s long-term problems very abruptly.
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)
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.
On this day, 25th September 1991 a carbon tax in Europe was proposed
“The other factor concerned the difficulties the [European] Commission has had in putting into practice the fourth arm of the strategy, the carbon/energy tax. The details of this tax were announced on 25 September 1991. It would be levied on the basis of 50 per cent on the carbon content of energy, and 50 per cent simply on the energy ,and would be set at US $3 per barrel of oil equivalent, rising to US $10 per barrel by 2000. However, by the time the details were announced, it had already become hampered, not least by highly intensive lobbying by European industry (according to the Economist, [19 May 1992: 91] the heaviest lobbying of the EC it has ever engaged in.”
The basic things that needed to happen (or some of them) have been known for a very long time. We couldn’t even get the basics right (thanks in large part to fierce and successful resistance by fossil-ised interests)
What happened next?
The tax got squashed by the diligent and determined efforts of vested interests
On September 24, 2006 the direct action group “Planes Stupid” held its first taxiway occupation at East Midlands Airport. They’d formed at the “Camp for Climate Action” a month previously.
Baptist Minister leads airport shutdown protest against climate change
Environmental protestors (1) have this morning breached security at Nottingham East Midlands Airport and established a second camp for climate action – this time on an airport taxiway. Their aim is to stop carbon emissions from what they are describing as a “climate change factory.”
(2) A Baptist Minister whose former parish is in Nottingham is leading a remembrance service on the taxiway, in memory of the victims of climate change, reminding his congregation of the Bishop of London’s comments that “Flying is a symptom of sin.” (3) The Rev. Malcolm Carroll is conducting the service (from a pulpit he’s constructed) with twenty five smartly dressed activists wearing suits who have chained themselves across the taxiway to prevent planes from leaving.
Two tents, emblazoned with, “Climate Camp” have been pitched. The climate camp (4) campaigners from action group Plane Stupid (5) have pledged that this is part of a new wave of climate activism born at Drax Power Station in Yorkshire last month.
Making safety paramount, the protestors have taken steps to nullify the risk to the public by remaining on the taxiway rather than the runway thereby allowing planes to land in case of emergency. Police were immediately notified that this was a peaceful protest by environmental campaigners.
Nottingham East Midlands airport was chosen for the demonstration since it specialises in short haul flights, which are both unnecessary and unsustainable. (6) A huge number of the flights at this airport take place at night making them more damaging to the climate (7) and causing more harassment than usual to local residents. (8)
Speaking for the activists, writer and campaigner George Monbiot, said, “The real security threat comes from climate change, which is killing over 160,000 people every year – that’s the same as a 9/11 every week.”
The Rev. Malcolm Carroll, a member of Plane Stupid, said, “As the Bishop of London rightly put it, the science of climate change now means that flying is a sin. Tony Blair has known for years that climate change presents the biggest danger to life on earth so why doesn’t he do the Christian thing and ban unnecessary and unsustainable short haul flights?”
He continued:
“The Climate Camp at Drax was just the start. The people killing our planet should be put on notice; this direct action movement is going to be bigger than anything this country has seen before.”
This protest comes during the Labour Party Conference but Plane Stupid is already planning a national day of action against short haul flights on November 6th during the UN International Climate talks in Nairobi.
For more information/interviews:
On the taxiway: Richard George on xxxxxxxxxxxx
Outside the airport: Joss Garman on xxxxxxxxxxxx
(for studio interviews): John Stewart on xxxxxxxxxxxx
By phone: xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.planestupid.com
Any email responses to: press@planestupid.com
Professional pix available
Notes to editors:
1) The protestors include persons from London, Wales, Essex, Sheffield, Cambridge, Manchester and the Midlands.
2) Aviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change. For more:
www.planestupid.com
3) Richard Chartres, Bishop of London who is third most senior figure in the CoE and who chairs the bishops’ panel on the environment, said: “There is now an overriding imperative to walk more lightly upon the earth and we need to make our lifestyle decisions in that light.Making selfish choices such as flying on holiday or buying a large car are a symptom of sin. Sin is not just a restricted list of moral mistakes. It is living a life turned in on itself where people ignore the consequences of their actions.”
4) The first climate camp was held at Drax from August 26th – September 4th, and this kick started the climate camp movement. www.climatecamp.org.uk
5) Plane Stupid is Britain’s first national direct action group against the unsustainable growth in aviation. It is NOT a Christian group.
www.planestupid.com
6) 45% of all flights in Europe are to destinations less than 500km away. (That’s the same as London – Scottish border!) These are places easily reachable by train or bus alternatives which are over ten times less polluting.
7) http://www.extra.rdg.ac.uk/news/details.asp?ID=671 (Report in Nature Journal)
8)http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/consultation_responses/east_midlands_airport .pdf#search=%22noisiest%20airport%20in%20Britain%20Nottingham%22 includes a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impacts of this particular airport
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).
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.
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.
On this day 23 September 1986, Senator Joe Biden (what happened to THAT guy?) launched the “Biden Initiative on Global Warming.”
Yes, 1986.
The excellent book by Howe, “Behind the Curve” contains this
“Throughout the mid-1980s, Al Gore and his fellow congressional Democrats continued to push the Reagan administration to begin dealing with the problem of climate change. In 1986, Senator Joe Biden introduced an initiative mandating that the president commission an executive-level task force to devise a strategy for responding to global warming – a strategy the president was meant to deliver to Congress within one year. The initiative became the Global Climate Protection Act of 1987, which the president signed. The bill in the end required very little real commitment from the administration, but it demonstrated an expanding congressional interest in climate change that raised the domestic political profile of the State Department’s negotiations with UNEP and the WMO leading up to the IPCC. It also led to more congressional hearings on the issue, which helped keep global warming in the news and thus on the public agenda.”
“Directs the President to establish a Task Force on the Global Climate to research, develop, and implement a coordinated national strategy on global climate. Requires such Task Force to transmit a United States Strategy on the Global Climate to the President within a year. Requires the President to then report to specified members of Congress on such report.
Directs the President to appoint an ambassador at large to coordinate Federal efforts in multilateral activities relating to global warming.
Directs the Secretary of State to promote the early designation of an International Year of Global Climate Protection.
Urges the President to give climate protection high priority on the agenda of U.S.-Soviet relations.”
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.
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…
