Categories
Australia Uncategorized

January 14, 2003 – WWF Australia raises the alarm

Twenty two years ago, on this day, January 14th, 2003,

Human-induced global warming was a key factor in the severity of the 2002 drought in Australia, the worst in the country’s history, according to a report issued Tuesday [14 January] by WWF Australia. The report is part of an effort by Australian environmental organizations to convince the Liberal Government of John Howard to reverse its policy and sign the Kyoto climate protocol.

Human Actions Blamed for Worst Australian Drought. Jan 15. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2003/2003-01-15-02.html SYDNEY, Australia, January 15, 2003 (ENS) –

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 376ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that George Bush and then John Howard had both pulled out of negotiations around Kyoto Protocol, citing economic interests. (But it went deeper than that it was about culture and the way the world should be.) The Millennium drought was causing mayhem, and WWF was oh, sorry, trying to stitch together coalitions to put pressure on governments, especially the federal government.

What I think we can learn from this is that policy entrepreneurs even the centrists, (and you don’t get more centrist, or, in fact, neoliberal and elite etc, than WWF) will have to try multiple times to get any attention. This particular report gained no traction. WWF did further work with the Wentworth group and insurers. It wasn’t until another business friendly coalition back in 2006, that they began to get through. It’s a bit like trying to chop down a tree. You can’t do it in one blow, usually.

What happened next

The emissions kept climbing. The Age of consequences (for rich white people) has begun. 

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: 

Categories
United States of America

January 13, 1967 – crucial editorial in Science – “Man is changing the earth’s atmosphere…”

Fifty eight years ago, on this day, January 13th, 1967, the editor of the most prestigious American scientific journal, Science, writes about the carbon dioxide threat,

“Man is changing the earth’s atmosphere.  Most obvious is the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 322ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that almost exactly two years before Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States, had made an address to Congress that included mention of CO2 build up. And in the intervening period, there had been a report in November 1965  by the President’s Scientific Advisory Panel Council and other reports. Abelson, who had trained as a nuclear physicist, clearly had his finger on the pulse (part of the job spec for editor of the premier scientific journal in the United States!) 

What we learn is that at the beginning of 1967, readers of the journal Science would have been aware of this as a potential issue. Now, it turns out that the estimates of temperature increase were vastly overblown, overstated. The word could is doing a lot of work. Nonetheless, it shows us that this was an issue that scientific political elites were aware of. 

What happened next  Ableson did keep talking about CO2. So for example, there’s him at a symposium later that year. 

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:

January 13, 1965 – President Lyndon Johnson gets a memo about carbon dioxide build-up and climate change

January 13, 2004 – Bob Carr rallies states for emissions trading

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

January 13, 2021 – New Scientist reports on types of intelligence required to deal with #climate change  

ps – from Wikipeia-

Abelson was outspoken and well known for his opinions on science. In a 1964 editorial published in Science magazine, Abelson identified overspecialization in science as a form of bigotry. He outlined his view that the pressure towards specialization beginning in undergraduate study and intensifying in PhD programs leads students to believe that their area of specialization is the most important, even to the extreme view that other intellectual pursuits are worthless. He reasoned that such overspecialization led to obsolescence of one’s work, often through a focus on trivial aspects of a field, and that avoidance of such bigotry was essential to guiding the direction of one’s work.[7]

Categories
United States of America

January 13, 1965 – President Lyndon Johnson gets a memo about carbon dioxide build-up and climate change

Sixty years ago, on this day, January 13, 1965, Lyndon Johnson got a memo about environmental problems, including carbon dioxie buildup. We know this thanks to the sterling investigative work of Rebecca John, writing for DeSmog. 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 320ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that US scientists, including Roger Revelle and Charles Dave Keeling had been measuring and pondering. A couple of years before this  memo, in March 1963 the Rockefeller-funded Conservation Foundation had held a meeting on carbon dioxide build-up.  The following year Revelle had chaired a group looking at environmental problems (the group included Margaret Mead!).  

What I think we can learn from this is that the information was getting to the very top quite quickly.

What happened next

A month after the memo, LBJ gave a special address to Congress on environmental problems included a mention of C02 build up

Two years to the day later an editorial appeared in Science pointing to … carbon dioxide as a problem

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: 

January 13, 2004 – Bob Carr rallies states for emissions trading

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

January 13, 2021 – New Scientist reports on types of intelligence required to deal with #climate change   

Categories
Activism

Open letter from jailed UK #climate activists abt their upcoming appeal (Jan 29-30)

Thank you for signing the open letter last July in support of the Whole Truth Five, jailed for taking proportionate, evidence-based action to stop new oil and gas licences.

We now write to you as the ‘Lord Walney 16’* – the sixteen people imprisoned for a combined 41 years for refusing to be bystanders to the devastation of life on earth. We were all sentenced between July and September last year, after Lord Walney, lobbyist for the arms and oil industry, called for those resisting genocide–whether from carbon emissions or Israeli bombs–to face the harshest response that the government, the police and the judicial system could punish us with.

You so generously signed that open letter, which called out the injustice of these insane sentences in the context of an already broken prison system. Now we’re calling on your generosity again. A critical moment has arisen: our appeals against these sentences will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 29th and 30th January. This is a truly historic juncture, not just for the 16 of us, but for our movements and all those who place justice and democracy over corporate profit. The courts are sensitive to public pressure. And you are someone who can make the difference – the more visible support we have from cultural figures, the harder judges will find it to quietly deny us our rights, and thereby erode all of our rights.

Please join the solidarity rally outside court on either day and let us know you’re coming by emailing info@defendourjuries.org. There will be a podium in a safe place for a reading, a speech or a song across the two days – whatever you are moved to contribute – or simply come and show your solidarity.

If you can’t make it in person, please express your support for us on your social media channels by sharing the event link with the hashtag #FreeTheLordWalney16 and get in touch if you want to support remotely in other ways: info@defendourjuries.org

We gave up our freedom to resist the ultimate crimes against humanity and life on earth. Now we’re calling on your help – don’t let a slide into corporate authoritarianism come to pass unnoticed.

With love,

Anna Holland, 23, serving a 20 month sentence in HMP Send

Chris Bennett, 33, serving an 18 month sentence, released on tag

Cressida Gethin, 22, serving a 4 year sentence in HMP Send

Daniel Shaw, 38, serving a 4 year sentence in HMP Wayland

Gaie Delap, 78, serving a 20 month sentence in HMP Eastwood Park

Dr Larch Maxey, 52, serving a 3 year sentence in HMP Fosse Way

Louise Lancaster, 58, serving a 4 year sentence in HMP Send

Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, serving a 4 year sentence in HMP Send

Paul Bell, 24, serving a 22 month sentence, released on tag

Paul Sousek, 73, serving a 20 month sentence, released on tag

Phoebe Plummer, 23, serving a 2 year sentence in HMP Bronzefield

Roger Hallam, 58, serving a 5 year sentence in HMP Wayland

Theresa Higginson, 26, serving a 2 year sentence, released on tag

*Note: three of the 16 have not added their names here due to the risk of being recalled to prison for associating with their fellow activists

Categories
Australia Nuclear Power

January 12, 2006 – the nuclear option, yet again

Nineteen years ago, on this day, January 12th, 2006,

 “NUCLEAR power will be examined as part of the solution to global warming when ministers from six countries meet this morning in Sydney for talks on climate change…”  

Peatling, S. 2006. Nuclear question looms large at climate change talks. Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January. 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 382ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was  that everyone knows there’s going to have to be a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, even though (because) t was far too weak. And so the proponents of action are talking about a stronger emissions trading scheme with fewer loopholes. And the opponents are, of course, talking about “technology.” The Bush and Howard governments had been banging on and creating these entirely fake and stupid bodies that would allow world leaders to stand at a podium in front of a new logo and declare “hydrogen” or “nuclear” or “CCS” or some other nonsense instead of any actual emissions cuts, And this is further examples of that. 

What I think we can learn from this

Technology is always invoked as the get out of jail free card. Enough people find it convenient to believe, or easy enough to pretend to believe.  And the emissions keep climbing.

What happened next

And the emissions kept climbing. 

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: 

Categories
Australia

January 13, 2009 – Medical Journal of Australia warns about climate impacts

Sixteen years ago, on this day, January 13th, 2009,

 Aborigines living in remote parts of Australia will feel the impact of climate warming more than other Australians, a report says. With temperatures in the tropical north and interior tipped to rise by three degrees Celsius by 2050, worsening already searing summer heat, the government needs to urgently improve Aboriginal health and housing, researchers wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia. 

….”Elevated temperatures and increases in hot spells are expected to be a major problem for Indigenous health in remote areas, where cardiovascular and respiratory disease are more prevalent and there are many elderly people with inadequate facilities to cope with the increased heat stress,” they wrote.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-01-13/aborigines-to-feel-climate-shift-most-report/265222Donna Green, Ursula King and Joe Morrison

Green, et al. 2009.Disproportionate burdens: the multidimensional impacts of climate change on the health of Indigenous Australians Med J Aust ; 190 (1): 4-5. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02250.x

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 387ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was  that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had gained power in part by saying that he would take action on climate change. Already by this time, however, it was pretty clear that that “action” would be utterly inadequate to the scale of the challenge at best. Meanwhile, the Millennium drought was still making life hell.

What I think we can learn from this  is that bodies such as the Medical Journal of Australia were wanting to raise the issue of the most vulnerable people getting it in the neck.

What happened next Rudd couldn’t get his piss-weak climate legislation through, and the next year was toppled by his deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard, and we finally got legislation in 2012 (repealed two years later)

The danger for vulnerable communities, poor, rural, isolated continues to climb, and there will be places that will have to be abandoned because of heat. And we Are A Stupid, Stupid species. 

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:

Categories
Air Pollution Canada United States of America

January 11, 1909 – Boundary Object(ions).

One hundred and sixteen years ago, on this day, January 11th, 1909, a deal on international pollution gets inked.,

Since early in this century the Consolidated Mining-and Smelting Company of Canada, Ltd., has operated a smelter for refining lead and zinc at Trail, B.C., in the Columbia River Valley. The plant is seven miles (eleven miles along the river channel) north of the international boundary line between Canada and the United States. As the capacity of the plant increased through the years, its emissions of SO2 increased correspondingly. Between 1924 and 1926 the amount doubled, and beginning in 1925 damage to crops in the Columbia River Valley south of the border became serious enough for the United States to request indemnity and corrective action.

The claim for damages was referred in 1928 to the International Joint Commission, United States and Canada, under Article IX of the Convention of January 11, 1909, between the United States and Great Britain.’ 

page 23-4 of Neiburger, Morris. (1973). International Aspects of Air Pollution. Stanford Journal of International Studies, 8, 16-30. 

Boundary Waters and Questions Arising along the Boundary with Canada, January 11 , 19o9, art. IX, 36 Stat. 2448, 2452 [9igog T.S. 548

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 299ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the US and Great Britain, who had fought various wars against each other and were apparently close again in 15 years before this, signe an agreement about boundary issues. This treaty that was invoked much later, 15 years later, because of a giant Canadian smelter causing environmental problems in the US. Now this is really obviously very obscure, and I only found it via a Google Scholar search for “January 11” and “greenhouse effect”. But what it tells us, what we learn, is that trans boundary air pollution has been on the agenda in the courts, etc, since, well, for 100 years, at least, 

What happened next? Well, I didn’t know how that was resolved. I do know that in 1971 the Nixon government was thinking about imposing a tax on sulfur emissions, and of course, emissions trading, using the example of The Clean Air Act of 1990 has held us up for a long time as a really small policy solution to much bigger, transformative issues. 

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: 

Jan 11, 1964 -: The Merchants of Doubt have work to do

January 11, 1970 – A new Ice Age on its way?

January 11, 2010 – Bad news study about trees and the warming Arctic…

Categories
Egypt World Meteorological Organisation

January 10, 1978 – World Meteorological Organisation outlines World Climate Programme…

Forty seven years ago, on this day, on January 10

“An ad hoc group of expert members of the EC (WMO Executive Committee) met in Cairo from 10 to 12 January 1978 to outline essential elements of a World Climate Programme (WCP), and this program was approved by the thirtieth meeting of the EC in May 1978. 

(Cain, 1983: 83)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 335ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that that the WMO had, of course, been looking at carbon dioxide build up falongside or in front of the United Nations Environment Program, the folks at IIASA and others (though still in the 1970s the number of scientists working on C02 build-up could comfortably fit in a conference hall, I think).

And there was a push to have a world climate conference. I think it had already been agreed by the time that this meeting took place.

What I think we can learn from this is that the scientific wheels for international collaboration grind, necessarily, relatively slowly. Which gives all the more amazing kudos to the IPCC in its early days for getting that first report out In 1990 having only been agreed at the end of 1988.

What happened next is that the World Climate Program got going, and the first world climate conference happened in Geneva in February of 1979 and there was a lack of consensus around the dangers of CO2, in large part to John Mason, who had been digging his heels in on this issue for a decade and a half

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: 

FILL THIS IS!!! WITH PREEXISTING BLOGS (You can do the links during deadtimes)

Categories
Denial

January 9, 1987 – another stupid letter in the Guardian

Thirty eight years ago, on this day, January 9th, 1987 a grumpy scientist who had already been wrong about ozone was being wrong about carbon dioxide build-up.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 349ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was was that more concern was being paid to the greenhouse effect, especially since the Villach meeting in October 1985 and people were talking about it, clearly. The other context will be that Richard S. Scorer was well as ozone problems, from the 70s and his actions on the latter score a mention (p.114) in a Oreskes and Conway’s book The Merchants of Doubt.

What’s fascinating here is that latter the same year Scorer, in his capacity as President of the Royal Meteorological Society, was engaged in “high level” discussions” about climatic change (as per National Archives binge, Jan 2025 – watch this space!)

What I think we can learn from this

Relevance Deprivation Syndrome, and having been flat wrong is a real thing – see also John Maddox (twice Nature editor) And John Mason (ex-Met boss) for that matter.

What happened next

1988 was the banner year for climate change. It broke through into the public policy agenda. Scorer died in 2011. and the Guardian keep kept publishing asinine letters from asinine people

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:

January 7, 2004 – geoengineering our way outa trouble?

January 7, 2013 – Australian climate activist pretends to be ANZ bank, with spectacular results 

2013, Jan 7: Paper (briefly) wraps rock. But coal wins in the end… #auspol

Categories
Australia United Kingdom

January 8, 2018 – Joe Root doesn’t come back to bat

Seven years ago, on this day, January 8 2018, English batsman Joe Root didn’t come out to play…

But on Monday morning he was taken to hospital suffering from severe dehydration and diarrhoea. It was assumed that this was a consequence of his being in the field for almost all of Sunday when temperatures in the middle soared as high as 57 degrees, initially trying to marshal England’s flagging attack, then defiantly batting for some pride and the draw.

Marks, 2018.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 408ppm. As of 2025 it is 425ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was

Australia has always had some hot days, but they’re getting hotter. And why could that be? Why this matters is we’re beginning to see cultural events and sporting events being affected by the extremes. but we dismissed them because “here always been heat waves” or whatever. 

And there are sports where it’s simply becoming too dangerous to play, or it will become too dangerous to play at certain times of day. 

But in response, these concerns will be derided as woke and people will point to one off days in 1930s when it was hotter.

NB  further on Marks writes “Later, it transpired that Root had a viral gastroenteritis bug and that his illness had noting to do with heat exhaustion, although the temperatures on Sunday could not helped his condition.”

What I think we can learn from this

Yeah, like we ever learn anything…

What happened next

Root is still playing and batting “quite well” shall we say?

He’s now the highest scoring English batsman and might reasonably expect to overtake at least Ricky Ponting quite soon and who knows, conceivably overtake Sachin Tendulkar to score the most runs in Tests. 

Sidebar, Just Stop Oil protesters tried to interfere with the 2023 Ashes and Johnny Bairstow picked one up and removed him from the field. Stewart Lee had something good to say about this…

Also on this day

Jan 8, 1958 – “The masters of infinity… could control the world’s weather”, says LBJ

January 8, 1968 – LaMont Cole to AAAS about running outta oxygen, build-up of C02 etc

January 8, 2003 – Energy firms plan to “bury carbon emissions”…

January 8, 2013 – Australian Prime Minister connects bush fires and #climate change