On this day in 2005, Australian politician Anthony Albanese said the following in parliament.
At the beginning of this century, we are at a crossroad. The science is clear and compelling: ecological decline is accelerating and many of the world’s ecosystems are reaching dangerous thresholds. Overexploitation of our natural resources, habitat loss from urbanisation and the clearing of forests for farmland, competition from introduced animals and plants, and climate change induced by a 30 per cent increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are threatening the world’s diversity. The facts are these: since the industrial revolution average global surface temperatures have risen by one degree Celsius, the most dramatic rise for over 1,000 years; the five hottest years on record have occurred in the last seven years, the 10 hottest in the last 14; snow cover has decreased 10 per cent since the 1960s; and glaciers that have not retreated since the last ice age 12,000 years ago are now doing so.
The Howard government’s most significant failure is its decision to pursue an isolationist position on climate change….
You can read the full whack here.
The context is this – Australian civil society was still not up on its hindlegs about climate change, despite the country’s exquisite vulnerability, shameful international record and largely derisory domestic response. By the end of the following year, that would change….
What happened next
Well, “Albo” is now leader of the opposition. And there is an election coming. Watch this space.
Manchester-based artist Jackie Haynes writes a guest post of her own reflections.
Marking International Women’s Day by tracing an intersectional one-hundred-year thread from Mary Greg’s collection of objects, through writers, artists and a group of climate justice activists, to arrive at ‘The Empty Space’ in Manchester Art Gallery’s new Climate Justice Gallery.
The Mary Greg Collection
The copper objects from the Mary Greg Collection currently displayed in Manchester Art Gallery’s new Climate Justice Gallery are amongst other copper-related items from the public collection. The items have been selected by the Climate Justice Group to draw attention to the implications of a photographic print from Nyaba Leon Oedraogo’s The Hell of Copper Series (2008). Also exhibiting at the Manchester city-wide We Face Forward Exhibition in 2012, Oedraogo described the disastrous working conditions resulting from electrical waste materials coming from Europe and the United States.
“The dump at the Aglobloshie Market spreads over 10 kilometres. From dawn to dusk, dozens of young Ghanaians, from 10 to 25 years of age, exhaust themselves doing this, seven days a week. Their mission is to disassemble the old computers and burn certain plastic or rubber components to cull the precious copper, which will then be resold. Everything is done by hand or with iron bars, makeshift tools found among the refuse. They have neither masks nor gloves. There are not even any functioning toilets.”
‘The precious copper’ is recyclable without loss of quality and the International Copper Association estimates that 80% of the copper that has ever been mined remains in use. The copper comb exhibit from the Mary Greg Collection was excavated from Holborn Viaduct, London in 1866. Writing extensively on the Mary Greg Collection, Platt Hall’s curator Liz Mitchell explains how Mary Greg’s belief in the personal and spiritual growth to be found in paying close attention to the small things of life adds another dimension to her varied gifts to Manchester City Art Galleries and beyond. Her collections may embody a certain nostalgia for the past, but her motivation seems to have been to inspire the present and the future.[1]
Injustices illuminated by the contrasting provenance and perception of value of the collected objects and the photograph point towards and away respectively, from caring for the planet’s people and resources. The Introduction to Climate Justice Gallery states the intentions of using Manchester Art Gallery’s publicly-owned collections:
We have chosen to call this gallery Climate Justice because tackling climate change involves tackling social injustice. Those who do the least damage are being harmed the most. Those who hold the power and wealth are responsible for global warming. “They have the least reason to change.”
Joining the dots between climate change, colonialism and capitalism can help us to understand the structural changes needed.
Art collections are often displayed to reflect the stories of the powerful. This is unjust. We need a more democratic approach to history, because we need radical change.
Manchester gets much credit for its ‘radical’ history, the industrial revolution and the cotton trade. Taking pride in our city’s history must come with the acknowledgement of the damage caused by industrialisation and its links to colonialism.
The gallery can be a starting point for reviewing this history. Over time, we will use the gallery and collection to encourage collective learning and action on climate justice through:
Learning from history
Activating a different future
Scrutiny of policy makers
Collective working and care
The injustices of climate change highlighted within this gallery do not end when you leave this space. You’ll find them throughout the art gallery, all over the city and beyond.
Our labels (next to the artworks) include the parts per million (PPM) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the year each artwork was made. The “safe level” of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been assessed as 350ppm; we passed this level in 1987.[2]
The curation and grouping together of the artworks around a theme such as copper, is an example of efforts made by the group to stimulate debate needed to address accumulating and overlapping injustices.
Noah’s Ark
Cross-cutting themes are deliberately abundant in the exhibition, radiating from each artwork and waiting to be activated by the thoughts and conversations of whoever happens to be looking at it. Manchester Art Gallery has three Noah’s Arks in its collection, practically a flotilla.
One Ark and its animal and human residents, dating back to 1840 and by an unknown maker, is placed below Francisco de Goya y Lucientes’ Flying Folly from the Disparates (1816), an etching and aquatint on paper. Together these works suggest a sea, land and airborne narrative of climate catastrophe. They form an ‘embankment’ to ‘The Empty Space’, a deliberately curated gap in the exhibition.
The ‘embankment’ on the other side of The Empty Space includes A Beach In My Living Room (2010-11), a photographic print taken in Ghana by Nyani Quarmyne. In the interpretation panel, group member Rabia Begum describes how
“Numour Puplampo of Totope has been forced to abandon his home as it has been buried by the sea. This image shows the nature of Totope where Climate Change is very real. A Ghanian man standing behind a window looks directly at the camera, as the pink and red painted walls begin to peel. The man and room are half-submerged in the sand. Whilst the West looks at “mitigation”, Africa looks at “adaptation”. Quarymyne explores how the affluent find ways to remain comfortable and the less affluent must find ways to adapt to this. “How would you adapt to this?””
A Beach In My Living Roomspeaks across The Empty Space to the flood narrative of the Ark, but The Empty Space is like a parting of the waves, held back to make way for the arrival of more artwork by global majority female artists, currently and conspicuously lacking in Manchester City Art Gallery’s collections. Watch this space and check back next International Women’s Day for a just and representative cultural tidal wave addressing this injustice.
Jackie Haynes joined the Climate Justice Group to make climate emergency-related links between Manchester Art Gallery and Platt Hall’s collections. This came about as a result of Platt Hall commissioning TSAP (Terrace Square Artists Project, Moss Side) to respond to collections with new artwork to display in Platt Hall’s public-facing windows in Platt Fields Park.[3]
No! Ah!(dismay followed by ideas) (2020) tells the story of the 22 modern day cousins of the 19th Century Noah’s Ark animals from Platt Hall’s Mary Greg Collection. The animals end their year-long trek towards Platt Hall Climate Emergency Hub, which began following the announcement by Manchester City Council of the Manchester Climate Emergency Declaration on 10th July, 2019. On the way to sheltering in the hub, they walk and talk through how they’d like to emerge from the emergency into a better world. The following video is the first in an ongoing series of both generations of animals’ climate activism. The video is silent because the animals are speechless with dismay, but quietly determined.
[1] Mitchell, Elizabeth Sarah (2018) ‘Believe me, I remain…’: the Mary Greg collection at Manchester city galleries. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University p.265
[2] The Manchester Art Gallery Climate Justice Group started meeting online in July 2020. We are gallery staff, artists and activists based in Manchester:
Rabia Begum: Artist, activist and member of Manchester Climate Change Youth Board
Janet Boston: Curator: Craft and Design, Manchester Art Gallery
Kooj Chuhan: Digital artist, filmmaker, activist and director of Crossing Footprints
Ana Lucia Cuevas: Artist and filmmaker
Clare Gannaway: Curator: Contemporary Art, Manchester Art Gallery
Jackie Haynes: Artist, art practice-based researcher.
Bev Hogg: Collections and Assets Assistant, Manchester Art Gallery
Jane Lawson: Artist and fungus grower
Adam Peirce: Core member of Climate Emergency Manchester
Hannah Williamson: Curator: Fine Art, Manchester Art Gallery
Emmanuela Yogolelo: Singer-songwriter, storyteller, music facilitator, cultural leader and producer
On this day in 1996 at a meeting of the “Ad Hoc group, for the Berlin Mandate” – I will explain – Trinidad and Tobago threw shade at Australia for its definitions of equity.
So in 1995, at the first “Conference of the Parties” (COP), the Berlin Mandate had been agreed, and it said that rich countries would have to come up with a deal for the third COP which was to be held in Kyoto. The rich countries would agree to some preliminary emissions cuts.
The word “equity” was then fought over, and Trinidad and Tobago members of AOSIS, were not impressed with the Australian Government’s attempt to define equity in ways that would suit them.
To quote from the Earth Negotiation Bulletin –
“TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO said Brazil’s proposal on QELROs provided a logical way forward and Germany’s proposal provided impetus to the work of the AGBM. He said the gas-by-gas approach is the simplest and most effective, and expressed surprise at Australia’s idea of equity. Each country could propose an idea of equity that suits its own needs.”
Why this matters.
We need to remember that poor countries have been calling for justice, and rich countries have been telling them to go fuck themselves for a very long time. Indeed, a lot earlier than 1996.
What happened next?
The Berlin Mandate got to Kyoto. And a very weak deal was made, that both United States and Australia then pulled out of. The Kyoto Protocol finally became law without those two countries. In 2005. Negotiations then began to replace it, which led to the so-called Bali Roadmap to Copenhagen. And Copenhagen failed. And here we are 13 years later, having reverted to the Japanese concept of “pledge and review,” which is all we’re going to do. And those small island states are completely fucked.
On this day in 2009. Peter Mandelson, then Secretary of State for business, launched the very brief, glossy, “low carbon industrial strategy” of the United Kingdom.
The context is the global financial crisis had made it possible to talk about industrial strategy again. For the previous 20 plus years, to do so, in the UK, was to put a target on your back and to write a career suicide note, because you were clearly an interventionist communist “beer sandwiches at number 10” kind of person.
Why this matters.
We need to remember that what is “possible” (even just to talk about) is most often shaped by events that have nothing to do, in particular, with the issue at hand. So, the GFC opened up a discursive space, which has kinda-sorta been occupied and maintained – whether that discursive space has made policy implementation as opposed to announcements is a question for another day or for a research fellowship.
What happened next?
The industrial strategy went nowhere, because everyone knew the Brown Government was toast. The Coalition Government that replaced it came up with “The Carbon Plan”, then another one, then another one. And here we are.
On this day in March 5 1950, Jule Charney and Jonny von Neumann produced the first computer simulation of the weather. Who were these people? Jules Charney was, according to Wikipedia considered “the father of modern dynamical meteorology, Charney is credited with having “guided the postwar evolution of modern meteorology more than any other living figure.”
And in 1979, he helmed what’s now known as the Charney report, which told the politicians that yes, there was no reason to doubt that a doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would lead to a three degree temperature rise.
Jonny von Neumann was Hungarian, possibly the smartest person who’s ever lived. And in 1955 he would warn Fortune magazine of the buildup of carbon dioxide shortly before his death in early 1957.
Why this matters.
The work Neumann and Charney did was foundational for the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, set up in 1963 under NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to model the atmosphere.
Computer simulations, computer models of the climate have been extremely important for creating the understanding (and global awareness) of weather and climate. And there is a book by Paul Edwards called A Vast Machine which will tell you a lot more.
What happened next?
It would be another five or six years before the buildup of carbon dioxide started to impinge properly on people’s consciousness.
On this day in March 4 2003, the Luntz memo was exposed. Frank Luntz was a Republican communications PR guru, and his memo advocated continued casting of doubt.
In the words of the Guardian’s reporter
The memo, by the leading Republican consultant Frank Luntz, concedes the party has “lost the environmental communications battle” and urges its politicians to encourage the public in the view that there is no scientific consensus on the dangers of greenhouse gases.
“The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science,” Mr Luntz writes in the memo, obtained by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based campaigning organisation.”
The broader context is that the Bush administration having already reneged on promises to reduce carbon dioxide and pulled the US out of Kyoto needed to continue its perception management, and that’s what Luntz was proposing, as part of the broader war, to keep people in the dark, ignorant, confused, demoralised and it’s been a very successful effort. So here we are.
Why this matters.
We need to see how “common sense” (in the Gramscian sense) is endlessly confected and defended…
On this day in 1990, a report was released showing that Australia could reduce its carbon dioxide emissions markedly and save a lot of money through energy efficiency measures. The report was written for the Department of Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories, by Deni Greene, an American consultant who had moved to Australia.
The broader context was that Australia was discussing what emissions reductions it would commit to. Prominent among these was the so-called “Toronto target” from a June 1988 Conference, which proposed that industrialised nations go for a 20% cut on a 1988 baseline by the year 2005. This was vigorously resisted of course, by industry. Greene’s report was part of a back-and-forth set of reports trying to create/close down support for the target.
Why this matters.
We need to remember that energy efficiency has been talked about and not done for decades. If you are interested in Australian energy efficiency, you cannot go past the tireless and pain-staking work of Alan Pears.
On this day in 1997, environmental activist Judi Bari died of breast cancer. In May 1990, Bari and her partner Darryl Cherney had been travelling in Oakland, California in a car when it exploded. They were environmental activists with Earth First, participating in what was called Redwood Summer to bring environmentalists and workers in the logging sector together in common cause against logging companies.
The FBI tried to suggest that Bari and Cherney had been blown up by their own bomb. This quickly collapsed. It is to this day not known who planted the bomb.
Why this mattersWe need to remember that people who are trying to stand in the way of the Ecocidal machine are at best smeared, at worst assassinated. Three years earlier, Chico Mendes had been killed. In 2016 Honduran activist Berta Carceras was killed. The list of people paying the ultimate price. In defence of nature and sustainability grows longer all the time.
Atmospheric concentration of C02 at the time:
Atmospheric concentration of C02 at time of publication: 419 or so
Follow the Keeling Curve on Twitter- @Keeling_curve
On this day in 2010, Professor Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, gave testimony to a parliamentary committee (the Science and Technology Select Committee since you ask) on the subject of the so-called Climategate hack (or the “Climatic Research Unit email controversy”).
In late 2009, in the run up to Copenhagen, the servers of the University of East Anglia had been infiltrated, a vast archive of emails downloaded, and then selected releases to make it look as if climate scientists were colluding to keep critics out of peer review. And this was designed to make the negotiations at Copenhagen COP more problematic. Whether it mattered or not is impossible, perhaps to say, but no single bullet ever wins a war…
The broader context is that climate scientists had been coming under fierce public attack since at least 1989. (Never mind James Hansen’s funding being pulled in 1981 because of a New York Times front page article displeasing the Republican Administration).
But the kind of personal, bitter ad hominem attacks really took off 1995-96 around the second IPCC assessment report. Michael Mann, who became the subject of attacks himself, calls this the Serengeti Strategy.
Why this matters.
The narrative of “there is doubt about how severe climate change will be/the climate scientists may be – if not lying – exaggerating” is an immensely powerful narrative. Because it allows middle class professional people to continue not to pay attention to the issue. And that’s why the predatory delayers have played the card for so long.
What happened next?
The “climategate” emails were found, after multiple investigations, to be – in the words of the right wingers – a “nothing burger.” Jones continued his career, having admitted that he had contemplated suicide at the time. Meanwhile, the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have continued to climb
Atmospheric C02 concentration at that time: 390.1ppm
Atmospheric C02 concentration at time of publication: 416.71ppm
On the 28th of February 2003, the Business Council of Australia announces that it no longer have a position on whether Kyoto should be ratified on it or not [see here]. There has been a vicious fight within the Business Council of Australia. And the insurgents, people like BP’s Greg Bourne, have been unable to change position but are too big to ignore.
The broader context was the Commonwealth Government of Australia, led by John Howard, had, extracted a sweet deal for Australia at the December 1997 conference in Kyoto, but then failed to ratify it. This meant carbon trading was off the agenda for Australia forestry outfits and banks. It also was a source of frustration and anger for “progressive” business. Part of Howard’s argument was that business was united behind him. This BCA fight showed it was not.
Why this matters
You get these fights behind closed doors, within business associations – indeed, one of the roles of business associations is to be a venue for these sorts of spats, so they don’t take place devant les enfants. (Business associations have many other roles, providing information to members, lobbying, governments, etc. Providing training, standards, voluntary schemes, but as a venue, they’re pretty cool.) Now, one of the problems for researchers is that you can’t use freedom of information. You can’t interview people while they’re there in the thick of it, probably. And then, of course, when you do get hold of them afterwards. they’re telling you their version, their memories have faded, et cetera. But now I’m getting into methodology and epistemology, which were not, I suspect, why you came to this website
What happened next
It would be another three years before the cracks properly started showing in the Howard regime’s defence. By then Howard had scuppered another attempt at an Emissions Trading Scheme (2004). By April 2006 though, Westpac (a bank) and others formed one of a series of short-lived issue-specific groupings that would release a glossy report, lobby a bit and then fade away…
