Categories
Australia Fossil fuels

September 5, 2004 – John Howard gloats about cooking the planet

Twenty years ago, on this day, September 5th, 2004, Australian Prime Minister John Howard was – this will shock you – a turd.

Howard at opening of WEC 

We are also a nation, which has been blessed by providence with very large reserves of energy. And I want to say something about the role that Australia has in mind and has executed over the years in relation to those reserves of energy. Australia is a strong and reliable supplier of energy. Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and it is a large exporter of LNG. We are very proud of the partnerships in energy that we have developed over the years with our friends and close partners in the Asian Pacific region.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 378ppm. As of 2024 it is 420ishppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that Howard was now eight years into being Prime Minister. He had won all the big battles on environment, really, he had carved out a really good deal for Kyoto, and then pissed on it. He had stopped emissions trading, twice. True, he had been forced to take extra action to slow renewables, and he had even started talking about carbon capture and storage as a way to avoid any further talk of emissions reductions. 

He was surely feeling at this stage pretty damn pleased with himself, I’m quite sure. And so all of gloating at the World Energy Congress is to be expected really 

What we learn is that even when they’re supposed to maybe not boast too loud, for fear of alienating people, I guess if they know that they’re not alienating anyone important, and they’re sending a message that resonates with their core vote, then it’s okay. 

For a history of the World Energy Congress and what it was trying to achieve, see here.

What happened next Howard won the 2004 Federal election and why went on to cause more havoc and misery. And then Kevin Rudd came along and saved climate policy, Australia’s credibility and led us to the sunny upland of the land and milk and honey.  Oh yes. This definitely happened [subs please check this]. 

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, obv

Also on this day: 

 September 5, 1986 – a “Safe Energy” rally, in London

September 5, 1990 – Australian Environment Minister promises deep carbon cuts – “easy”…

September 5, 2005 – Anthony Albanese introduced “Avoiding Dangerous Climate #Change” private member’s bill

Categories
Australia

September 4, 1969 – Ivory Tower types tell the truth at ANU

Fifty five years ago, on this day, September 4th, 1969, the Canberra Times is in philosophical mood/mode…

Wood, J. 1969. Man and the new biology: Finding the truth. Canberra Times, 4 September, p.23.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107890419

By JONATHAN WOOD

This year’s University Lectures at the Australian National University, through the contributions of four Australian biological scientists, have formed the genesis of a philosophy and religion appropriate to modern man….

NB Aftermath of AAS in Adelaide in August…. 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 324ppm. As of 2024 it is 420ishppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere conference had been held in Paris the year before. And everyone who was thinking about life on Earth and its prospects was scratching their head about impacts and what might be done. And here we have some a new Australian National University biologists scratching their heads 

What we learn is that 1969-1970 is the year that eco concern really starts to kick into high gear. 1968 is the year of violence and Vietnam. ‘69 is half fragile, biosphere and all the rest of it thanks to new science and new field configuring events and so forth. 

What happened next? The Australian scientists kept banging on about this stuff publishing books. MacFarlane Burnet, the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science got a serious makeover from a dreary magazine to Search. And for a while it looks like we might do something meaningful. But we didn’t. Ditto the same feeling in the late 80s, early 90s. 

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 4, 1990 – Industry whines about environment minister’s speech

September 4, 2000 – industry says sky will fall if there’s a carbon tax

September 4, 2006 – Royal Society to Exxon: “Knock it off with the funding to #climate deniers”

Categories
Australia

September 3, 1990 – Greenies meet Prime Minister, a cautious dance ensues

Thirty four years ago, on this day, September 3rd, 1990, Bob Hawke has to keep the promise that got him back as Prime Minister… (well, one of them).

Conservation groups left Parliament House in Canberra on Monday [3rd], resisting Federal Government pressure to join efforts to achieve consensus over sustainable development.

This followed Stage Two of a special summit process including representatives from government, environmental groups and industry.

Members of Greenpeace, the Australian Conservation Foundation, World Wide Fund for Nature and the Wilderness Society spent more than an hour with Prime Minister Bob Hawke discussing a range of issues.

Anon,1990. Greens meet Hawke but resist consensus. Green Week, September 4, p.9.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 354ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that small-g green had come out for Labor giving second preferences in the Australian Federal election of March 1990. This meant that the incumbent Labor government squeaked back home. And the quid pro quo was that there would be more serious engagement with “ecologically sustainable development.” There had been, at last, a position paper in June of 1990. That had been fairly piss-weak on climate, of course, because it’s the big unmentionable to hard basket item, really. And here was Hawke meeting with the greenies to the fear and dismay and disgust of the business sector. Which you have to remember at this point, didn’t know if Hawke might go on for years and years. 

What we learn is that there are always these sorts of meetings and quid pro quos and attempts to get mainstream parties to pay at least lip service to not being ecocidal maniacs. These usually end in tears for the ‘greenies’, because the system rewards Ecocide or maniac behaviour and punishes anything that isn’t ecocidal mania. 

What happened next? After some further toing and froing and argy bargy the Ecologically Sustainable Development policymaking process did indeed happen. The greenies performed well intellectually. Business didn’t quite know what happened. But it was all for naught because business and bureaucracy – especially bureaucracy – were able to water things down and water things down. And then they got especially lucky, when Hawke was replaced by his former Treasurer Paul Keating. And then the dismissal of ecologically sustainable development kicked up a serious gear. It was killed off in the committees and left to die by the wayside. And also, there was the infamous meeting in the middle of 1992. Supposed to be a two day event. But everyone walked out at the end of day one because the bureaucrats were such assholes.

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.

References

Xxx

Also on this day: 

September 3, 1988 – Ann Landers is Greta Thunberg avant la lettre…

September 3, 2002 – “Kyoto cuts too small, so we’re not going to bother”. 

Categories
United Kingdom

September 2,1972 – BBC Radio speaks of “A Finite Earth”

Fifty two years ago, on this day, September 2nd, 1972,

A Finite Earth BBC Radio 3

First broadcast: Sat 2nd Sep 1972, 21:55 on BBC Radio 3

Professor Dennis Meadows , Dartmouth University, USA, co-author of The Limits to Growth in discussion with Professor Wilfred Beckerman , University College, London, member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. about the concept of using a computerised world model to determine the limits to continued economic growth.

The publication of The Limits to Growth has stimulated renewed controversy In the doomsday debate. Professor Beckerman attacks the assumptions of the report and challenges its conclusions.

Chaired by Michael Peacock

Producer Michael BRIGHT – (see also review of this by David Wade the following week in The Times)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 327ppm. As of 2024 it is 420ishppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the Limits to Growth report had come out before this, as had the Blueprint for Survival. Since then the Stockholm Conference on the Environment had happened. Everyone was saying, thinking about limits to growth, agreeing, disagreeing, and it was fair fodder for radio programmes where you could have various talking heads. And this is one where Wilfred Beckerman got a chance to talk. He was an economist and he was on the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution at the time. He was up against Dennis Meadows, one of the LtG authors/.

What we learn is that radio was not all radio gaga, and it was having one of its finest hours. nd the debates that we’re still having in 2024 were being had, then round and round in circles we go where it stops, nobody knows (well, the collapse of western “civ”, obvs). 

What happened next. The sorts of programmes and series kept being produced. Middle-class people kept stroking their chins while accepting promotions and ever greater comfort, believing that the system was fair, was delivering for them, because it was – without thinking about the deeper underlying costs in the long term. There was always such a short-term price to pay. If you go up against “the system” (man).

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 – 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

Categories
United States of America

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

Fifty four years ago, on this day, September 1st, 1970, the “left” conspiracy theory about the environment…

Hay reviews (2002: 259) that in the late 1960s, Marxists reacted to environmentalism with skepticism and hostility; defines it as ―a manifestation of the narcissistic and excessive individualism‖ of counter culture and false revolutionary movement. Sandor Fuchs on his paper, Ecology Movement Exposed, 1970 argues that the US ruling class develops environmentalism ―to divert attention from class-based issues 

(Fuchs’ paper was in the September 1970 issue of “Progressive Labour”) f. Sandor Fuchs, “Population, Pollution, and Natural Resources: Ecology Movement Exposed,” PROGRESSIVE LAB (September, 1970): 5 If someone has a copy, please send…

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 325ppm. As of 2024 it is 420ishppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that in April of that year, Earth Day had happened. And lots of middl- class people who’ve come out and held hands and sang Kumbaya, and a certain number of student radicals have been part of that. And then of course, there had been the killing of four students at Kent State by National Guard troops, which I think happened in the beginning of May, in response to the bombing and invasion of Cambodia.

What we learn is that there were two perspectives on Earth Day that kind of get lost in this general nostalgia. One the radical right, saying that it was a communist trick to subvert the American way of life. And they pointed to the fact that this was apparently Vladimir Lenin’s birthday, the 22nd of April. And the other was this promulgated by the Maoists, and so forth, that it was all being done by the nefarious Rockefeller Fund and so forth to “split the anti-war movement” (as if it needed any help…) 

Also we learn that any event will have multiple interpretations. So for example, the mere existence of Greta Thunberg is seen as a diversionary tactic somehow. 

What happened next? I think the Maoists were mostly gone within a couple of years. 

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

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

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

Categories
France United Nations

September 1, 1968 – UNESCO Biosphere Conference begins in Paris

Fifty six years ago, on this day, September 1st, 1968, people talked eco, at a pivotal meeting.

The Bisophere Conference was held under the auspices of UNESCO in Paris from 1 September to 13 September 1968.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 323ppm. As of 2024 it is 420ishppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that people had been banging on about the biosphere for a while. You can take it back to Vladimir Vernadsky (see also Dinshaw 2013). And this had especially picked up pace with things like the International Biological Programme in the mid-60s and the US interest in it.

What we learn is that seemingly new ideas, new-ish ideas can have a very long history and that certain individuals like G. Evelyn Hutchinson (among many others) had to work crucial in translating these and saving these and popularising them. 

What happened next? UNESCO’s Biosphere conference was a bit of a kickstart for concerns about what was happening and what was being done to “the natural world.” Concerns were well underway before, but this kind of crystallised them. And from it, the report in May of ‘69, about issues including carbon dioxide buildup that U Thant, then Secretary General of the United Nations, made was significant. 

And twenty-five years later…

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

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

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

Categories
Australia

August 31, 1992 – “Community Energy Audit” in Canberra

Thirty two years ago, on this day, August 31st, 1992, a community energy audit began.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/137177083

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 356ppm. As of 2024 it is 424ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that everyone was running around “getting their house in order.” There was still money sloshing about for greenhouse stuff. Although the tap had dried up. Mostly there was still old water coming through the Rio Earth Summit that happened and now Local Agenda 21 was going to kick in and everyone was supposed to hold hands, sing Kumbaya, and do local energy audits and so forth, to “save the world.” 

What we learn is that there was a period between 1988 and 1993 when and – this was crucial, because it happened as I was hitting adulthood, or at least chronologically, if not emotionally – when it looked like we might do something, or that something could be done. And then neoliberalism which had been there, got turbocharged because it was now for a while, a unipolar world. There was nothing outside the market. 

And all that is gone and forgotten. And this All Our Yesterdays is in part a project to remember that sense of possibility. 

 What happened next, the community energy audits, either dried up or weren’t done or they continued to be done, but they were ignored, because the greenhouse issue was irrelevant, and it had been “solved” anyway because we’d held a meeting in Rio and everything was going to be fine because something something technology something something promises something something Emissions Trading something something. 

The lies we tell ourselves so that we can turn over and go back to sleep and not challenge power are astonishing. Challenging power is very very costly because power by definition can make your life miserable. And here we are.

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: 

August 31, 1998 – Green dollar growing on trees?

August 31, 2011 – anti-carbon tax protesters call Anthony Albanese a “maggot”

August 31, 2005 – “Stop Climate Chaos” launched

Categories
Australia

August 30, 1986 – Adelaide warned about climate change by Environment Minister Don Hopgood

Thirty eight years ago, on this day, August 30th, 1986,

ADELAIDE: Ocean levels would rise about a metre over the next 60 years and have a significant effect on the Australian coastline and coastal communities, the South Australian Minister for Environment and Planning, Dr Hopgood, said yesterday.

Dr Hopgood told the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects’ national conference that the startling prediction on ocean levels was included in the most recent information on the “greenhouse effect” known to be heating up the earth.

Anon (1986) Sea level ‘to rise metre in 60 years’ Canberra Times, August 31, p1

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 348ppm. As of 2024 it is 424ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the CSIRO, via the Australian Environment Council and elsewhere, had finally sounded the alarm bell, about climate change, CO2 buildup, sea level rise, etc. And so here’s Don Hopgood, a decent Australian South Australian politician, telling some people the facts of life of what the 21st century will be.

What we learn is that by 1986, Australian political elites were beginning to understand the shitstorm that was coming. Not all of them, not all evenly. It would be another couple of years before it really started breaking out. And then you got the denial in response to that. 

What happened next? In ‘89, they set up a South Australian greenhouse committee. And it made some fine promises.  And over time, indeed (since 2003) South Australia has reduced its electricity-based carbon emissions, thanks to clever policy-making, federal policies etc.

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: 

August 30, 1971 – Bob Carr (ex- NSW premier) ‘gets’ climate change

August 30, 1975 – The Science Show does climate change…

August 30, 1989 – A global tax on emissions?!

August 30, 1990 -Australian diplomats (probably) tried to water down IPCC recommendations

Categories
United States of America

August 29, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina

Nineteen years ago, on this day, August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana coast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 380ppm. As of 2024 it is 424ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that warnings of increased intensity of hurricanes, if not their number, had been around for a while. The more local context was that the things that would protect New Orleans from a hurricane were levees and swamp lands and these were being neglected and drained because there was no money in it. And the US State was busy fighting an oil war in Iraq, and the local developers could always make more money. This was not a secret. The Times Picayune was covering it as per David Rovics’ song. There is a sort of whole false sense of inevitability. There’s also an awful sense of inevitability to the way the racism kicks in. If you’re black, you’re looting, if you’re white, you’re looking for food, and on and on and on. 

What we learn And if you want to understand how the 21st century is going to play out, have a look at the monstrosity that was the state response, and the corporate response, and the societal response by and large, to Katrina. That monstrosity shows you what you need to know. So you won’t be surprised. 

What happened next, New Orleans was “rebuilt” and gentrified and it’s slowly being eaten by sea level rise. 

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.

References

See, also Naomi Klein See also Rebecca Solnit Paradise Built in Hell, et cetera. 

See also Kim Stanley Robinson’s eerily prescient 40 days of rain imagery!

Also on this day: 

August 29, 1990 – The Australian mining and forestry industries threaten to spit the dummy

August 29, 2008 – business tells Labor to go softly (Labor then does, obvs).

Categories
Australia

August 28, 1977 – First  Australian“Greenpeace” action, against whaling 

Forty seven years ago, on this day, August 28th, 1977, the  first under-a-Greenpeace-banner action took place. It was against the last whaling in the English speaking world, Albany Western Australia 

On 28th August 1977, activists in inflatable zodiacs took on a whaling ship in Albany, Western Australia. And they won. Known back then as the ‘The Whale and Dolphin Coalition,’ they blockaded the Cheynes Beach whaling station for three weeks, drawing global media attention to the issue of commercial whaling.

In November 1978, Australia harpooned its last whale. This long blockade was the first-ever Greenpeace action in Australia – and it was the beginning of the end of our country’s whaling industry.

Source – https://media.greenpeace.org/archive/Greenpeace-Australia-Pacific-40th-Anniversary-27MZIFJXDAG7U.html

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 334ppm. As of 2024 it is 424ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that Australia was still permitting whaling, having perpetrated awful crimes for a couple of hundred years so that we could have lighting and so forth. You all should read Moby Dick. And this was the first Greenpeace Australia action. Greenpeace was then a very new beast, having been set up to protest nuclear testing. 

What we learn is Greenpeace got a foothold and then more in the Australian political scene. And then in 1985, I think the Rainbow Warrior got scuttled by French secret agents. Because France, because states and terrorism. 

What happened next. Greenpeace has kept going, with various peaks and troughs…

Whaling still happens – carried out by Iceland and Japan for “research”. We humans are a relentlessly barbaric species. And no, I’m not vegan. I’m a hypocrite like everyone else. 

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: 

August 28, 1971 – snarky opinion piece in New York Times. Stephen Schneider rebuts days later.

August 28, 2003 – EPA says Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant