Tag: 2021

Categories
Activism United Kingdom

November 23, 2021 – XR says will mobilise two million

Four years ago, on this day, November 23rd, 2021,

Extinction Rebellion UK claims it will have 2million ppl mobilised

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, 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 last climate “wave” of concern began in 2018, with the long hot summer, the IPCC’s 1.5 degrees report, Greta Thunberg and … XR.  But by late 2019, before the pandemic, it was clear that the wheels were wobbling, if not actually falling off.

See my “Does XR have the right tactics” debate in New Internationalist.

The specific context was – there had been attempts to re-heat the souffle. These had failed.

What I think we can learn from this – when the groups are on the downswing, they redouble and redouble their rhetoric.

See also my XR post with Hudson’s Law of social movement organisations and JSO anthropologically fascinating, politically terrifying

What happened next – Soon after XR announced “we quit”. And I wrote about that too.

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: 

November 23, 1961 – “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (in Denmark)

November 23, 1963 – Doctor Who begins

November 23, 1968 – “Hell upon Earth” warning about environmental destruction,inc. Climate…

November 23, 1988 – Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke gives greenhouse speech

November 23, 2009 – Global Warming Policy Foundation launched 

Categories
Carbon Capture and Storage

October 25, 2021 – IRENA fanbois CCS

Four years ago, on this day, October 25th, 2021,

On October 25, 2021 the International Renewable Energy Agency published a technical paper on the synergies between CCS and renewables in “reaching zero”. This is an astonishing and categorical failure by IRENA if indeed they ever held any proper ambition for wide scale implementation of renewables. The widely echoed calls for 100% renewables are fundamentally threatened by any CCS applied to fossil fuels or biomass. We should be very concerned at this time to see IRENA defy the fundamentals of its platform.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 425ppm. 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 CCS as a “solution” to climate change has been around since the 1970s. There have been various flurries of interest and then physics and economics intervenes – somebody should do a compare and contrast of CCS and hydrogen hypes (they’re coupled at present).

The specific context was that CCS wants all the friends it can get. What IRENA gets out of it, not so clear.

What I think we can learn from this is that technounicorns will get love from all sorts of places. 

What happened next – the CCS bandwagon has rolled on. When the wheels will fall off is anyone’s guess…

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 and further reading

Climate Warriors and Flagships from Hell – OffGuardian

Also on this day: 

October 25, 1982 – Exxon and “Climate Processes & Climate Sensitivity” symposium 

October 25, 2000 – local authorities in England make #climate promises. Well, that went well… #NottinghamDeclaration

Categories
Activism

September 28, 2021 – Greta Thunberg and “blah blah blah”

Four years ago, on this day, September 28th 2021, Greta Thunberg gave her “blah blah blah” speech 

Greta Thunberg has excoriated global leaders over their promises to address the climate emergency, dismissing them as “blah, blah, blah”.

She quoted statements by Boris Johnson: “This is not some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging”, and Narendra Modi: “Fighting climate change calls for innovation, cooperation and willpower” but said the science did not lie.

Carbon emissions are on track to rise by 16% by 2030, according to the UN, rather than fall by half, which is the cut needed to keep global heating under the internationally agreed limit of 1.5C.

“Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Green economy. Blah blah blah. Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah,” she said in a speech to the Youth4Climate summit in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. “This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great but so far have not led to action. Our hopes and ambitions drown in their empty promises.”

‘Blah, blah, blah’: Greta Thunberg lambasts leaders over climate crisis | Climate crisis | The Guardian

And here’s a video

‘Blah Blah Blah’: Greta Thunberg Dismisses World Leaders’ Climate Rhetoric

Kayfabe, innit?

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, 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 Thunberg’s “school strikes” had started in late 2018, and caught the public imagination.

The specific context was the “world saving” Glasgow COP was about to happen, and the bullshit and hopium levels were rising to a dangerous level.

What I think we can learn from this is that “blah blah blah” is a pretty good soundbite. Greta’s got game.

What happened next – we kept blah blah blahing.  Greta has added Palestine to her short list of causes, to her credit.

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 28, 1977 – John Mason being an idiot again. – All Our Yesterdays

September 28, 1997 – Australian denialist spouting tosh to his US mates.

September 28, 2000 – Liberal MP goes full cooker on Kyoto as threat to sovereignty.

September 28, 2007 – Bush invokes “technology” to fix climate. Like morons everywhere.

September 28, 2008 – “Wake Up Freak Out” posted online

Categories
Activism

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

Four years ago, on this day, September 1st, 2021,

Five climate protesters armed with hammers and chisels smashed a glass door at the European headquarters of the American investment bank JP Morgan in London, a court heard.

The Extinction Rebellion activists targeted the bank in the City of London, smashing a large glazed panel revolving door and causing many thousands of pounds-worth of damage, a jury was told on Tuesday.

Brett Weaver, prosecuting at their trial at Inner London crown court, said the five women made their way to JP Morgan early on 1 September 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/20/climate-activists-smashed-glass-door-of-jp-morgan-in-london-court-hears

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, 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 XR had exploded onto the scene in late 2018, promising revolution, rebellion, joy etc. Already by late 2019, pre-pandemic, reality was setting in.

The specific context was that it’s hard to do mass actions when a) the streets are empty and b) nobody really believes in the hype anymore, and it has become the loooong grind that it always is. So, some very brave people gritted their teeth and got on with symbolic non-violent direct action.

What I think we can learn from this is that sustaining organisations, especially ones with millennarian rhetoric, is really hard.

What happened next

People did time.

I am in jail for breaking windows at JP Morgan, the biggest funder of fossil fuels. Here’s why I did it | Amy Pritchard | The Guardian

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

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

Categories
Greenland

August 14, 2021 – It’s raining (again) oh no our world’s at an end…

Four years ago, on this day, August 14th, 2021,

On August 14, 2021, it rained, an event so remarkable that it made news around the world. (“For the First Time on Record, Rain Fell at the Summit of Greenland,” ran the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald.) Kolbert New Yorker 2024 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/when-the-arctic-melts

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, 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 we had had, by this point, almost 70 years of warnings, if you take it (as I do) from Gilbert Plass in May 1953. By 1988 the politicians could pretend the problem wasn’t an issue no longer.

The specific context was that the top of the world is beginning to defy our efforts at understanding what is going on and what comes next. Fun times.

What I think we can learn from this – to paraphrase Jason Bourne to the journalist Simon Ross in the third (and best?) Bourne film – “You have no idea what you’re into here”.

What happened next – we kept on keeping on. There were no efforts worthy of the name at rapid decarbonisation. We’re so fubarred.

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 14, 1989 – South Australia creates “interdepartmental committee on #climate change”…

August 14, 1971 – Stanford Prison Study begins…

August 14, 2002 – Australian economists urge Kyoto Protocol ratification

August 14, 2007 – CCS report in Australia “between a rock and a hard place”

Categories
Activism Australia

August 10, 2021- climate protest with burning pram…

Four years ago, on this day, August 10th, 2021,

The IPCC planned to release their sixth report and a spate of protests had been planned around Canberra ahead of it. CoCo was among a group of eight who planned to take their message directly to parliament. Their group included ANU Associate Professor Nick Abel, a climate scientist and kicked off when CoCo set fire to a pram and glued herself to the pavement. In the background was parliament house. As her fellow activists began to spray paint the words “Duty of Care” and “No Time” on columns across parliament, CoCo live streamed a speech about how she wanted to be a mother but could not “in all conscience bring a child into the world to face hell on earth.”

“The government, beholden to the fossil fuel lobby, has burnt my dreams,” she said.

It was a hammy performance, acted-up for the camera but the underlying message was true. CoCo had always wanted to be a mother but as she learned more about climate change, it was a future she would deny herself.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 416ppm. As of 2025, 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 – wait, you can’t remember 4 years ago? – The bushfires, the brutal heatwaves, the floods. The chickens coming home to roost.

The specific context was that Scott Morrison was still Prime Minister of Australia. Among other portfolios.

What I think we can learn from this is that we are toast. Sorry, but there it is. I’ve done ten of these posts on the trot, and have clearly got to stop (for now) before it just becomes a prolonged howl of rage. 

What happened next – More emissions. More jail terms for activists. More disasters. More despair.

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 10, 1974 – Stockholm conference on climate modelling ends 

August 10, 1978 – Ford Pinto deaths spark class action lawsuit – All Our Yesterdays

August 10, 1980 – “Energy, Climate and the Future” seminar in Melbourne

August 10, 2003 – a UK temperature record tumbles…

Categories
United Kingdom

November 16, 2021 – Chancellor cuddles up to oil bosses, of course.

Two years ago, on this day, November 16, 2021, a UK politician mouthed the right climate pieties at COP26, then told the oil companies “keep drilling, baby.”

Gosden, E. (2022) Kwarteng courted oil bosses after Cop26; Energy secretary encouraged North Sea drilling. The Times, January 3, p.23 – (Kwarteng schmoozed on Nov 16)

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly416ppm. As of 2023 it is 419ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the Glasgow climate COP had happened. Apparently 1.5 was still alive. The British state was happy enough with its performance and now back to business as usual. The Energy and Climate Secretary of State Bay was back to palling around with oil companies and letting them do further drilling in the North Sea.

What I think we can learn from this

that the ink does not need to be dry on some precious “hold hands sing Kumbaya” announcement of climate good intentions before politicians will go back to doing what they do in the interests of capital accumulation and their own post-political career and comfort.

What happened next

Kwasi Kwarteng delivered a mildly consequential mini budget in October of 2022, five minutes before Liz Truss threw him under the bus in a futile effort to save her own skin.

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.

Categories
Science

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

Two years ago, on this day, January 13, 2021, Robert J Sternberg, an American academic who has been studying intelligence for decades, argues in a New Scientist article that, well

“We’ve got intelligence all wrong – and that’s endangering our future”

IMAGINE a world in which admission to the top universities – to Oxford or Cambridge, or to Harvard or Yale – were limited to people who were very tall. Very soon, tall people would conclude that it is the natural order of things for the taller to succeed and the shorter to fail.

This is the world we live in. Not with taller and smaller people (although taller people often are at an advantage). But there is one measure by which, in many places, we tend to decide who has access to the best opportunities and a seat at the top decision-making tables: what we call intelligence. After all, someone blessed with intelligence has, by definition, what it takes – don’t they?

We have things exactly the wrong way round. The lesson of research by myself and many others over decades is that, through historical accident, we have developed a conception of intelligence that is narrow, questionably scientific, self-serving and ultimately self-defeating.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933174-700-weve-got-intelligence-all-wrong-and-thats-endangering-our-future/

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 415.5ppm. As of 2023 it is 418. .

What I think we can learn from this

Robert Sternberg has produced so much useful work (on love, on creativity/intelligence).

The game is rigged, and those rigging it want to keep the game as it is. Basically, a bunch of extractivist violent arrogant planet-killers think they are God’s gift, because they made God in their image.  And here we are.

What happened next

We keep relying on our “intelligence” to get us out of this.

Meanwhile, are our brains gonna fry? https://undark.org/2022/12/22/why-climate-science-shouldnt-forget-to-factor-in-brain-health/

What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong?  Do comment on this post.

References

Sternberg. R. (2018)  “Why Real-World Problems Go Unresolved and What We Can Do about It: Inferences from a Limited-Resource Model of Successful Intelligence”

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/6/3/44