Twenty five years ago, on this day, September 10th, 2001,
US President George “Dubya” Bush asks Australian Prime Minister John Howard “will you side with US or go with Europe on Kyoto”
Manne in ‘Liberals and Power: The Road Ahead’ (2008, P28).
(says Guy Pearse was told by well-placed source)
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 371ppm. As of 2026, 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 in the late 1980s the Americans had decided to stake out a position on climate that was basically “fuck you” to the entire world except their bezzies, the petro-states of the Middle East. Australia had initially been alongside the middle powers advocating for more action, but then they took a look at the amount of money they were making from exporting coal and how climate goals would upset the domestic apple cart, and they said “yeah, nah.” The president from ‘88 to ‘92 was George H. W. Bush, who had won the ‘88 election fair and square (give or take a little light race-baiting), which is more than you can say about his son, President George W. Bush in 2000.
The specific context was that Bush had already pulled out of the Kyoto protocol, and it was fairly clear that John Howard, Australian Prime Minister, was minded to do the same, but he had an election coming up and wasn’t going to make the announcement before that. Howard was on a trip to the United States, and this exchange happened according to one source at this time.
What I think we can learn from this It’s not too late to get John Howard and George W. Bush to The Hague for crimes against humanity.
What happened next Well, the next day was September 11th, 2001.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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References
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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
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.
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Also on this day:
September 10, 1957 – The Times covers the International Geodesy Conference…
September 10, 1973- Ozone concerns on display in Kyoto…
September 10, 2007 – shiny #climate promises versus grim reality
September 10, 2008 – Greenpeace Kingsnorth protesters acquitted