Tag: Paris

Categories
Carbon Capture and Storage

February 13, 2024 – Twiggy Forrest says CCS is not a solution

Two years ago, on this day, February 13, 2024

PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Carbon capture is not a solution for the energy transition and political leaders need to provide real, non-greenwashed, commitments to encourage investment, Andrew Forrest, executive chairman of Fortescue Metals, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the 50th anniversary meeting of the International Energy Agency, Australian billionaire Forrest said the investment community needs a level-playing field and honest answers from political leaders on phasing out fossil fuels in order to invest.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 424ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The broader context was that CCS has been around as a theoretical “solution” to climate change for fifty years, since Cesar Marchetti brain-farted it out at an IIASA conference.

The specific context was that Twiggy Forrest has been banging on about climate change for a little while now.

What I think we can learn from this is that CCS is a silly fantasy, but that’s all we have left now.

What happened next: Money kept getting thrown at CCS.

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: 

February 13, 1995 – Federal Environment Minister John Faulkner runs up the white flag on a carbon tax.

February 13, 2006 – Four Corners reveals the “Greenhouse Mafia”

 February 13, 2007- Industry is defo allowed to silence scientists…

Categories
France NotClimate

January 7, 1938 – Samuel Beckett stabbed #NotClimate

On this day, January 7, in 1938

Then, echoing the random absurdism of his novel, on 7 January 1938, Beckett was stabbed in the chest and nearly killed in a Paris street when he refused the solicitations of a notorious pimp, named “Prudent”. Joyce arranged for medical treatment, and Beckett received his page proofs in hospital where he made a few alterations and insertions. https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2024/07/24/murphy-by-samuel-beckett-1938-the-maestro-of-failure/

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at xxx parts per million.

As of 2026 they are ppm at and rising rapidly.  Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. 

Btw, the point(s) of this project is ….  the how, the who the hell am I and the what do I currently believe?

The context was

Beckett had been living in Paris for a couple of years by this time, I think. He’d been under analysis with Wilfrid Bion (watch this space)

Why care?

Well, knowing this about an author can change the way you read them?  (Some say it shouldn’t, obvs – nothing outside the text blah blah).

(How) does it connect to climate change?

Beckett’s sense of the absurd, despair, but also ACTION.

“Where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”

What happened next

He kept despairing and going on.

How does it help us understand the world?

Oof. Beckett and Bion – I must really get on with that…

How does it help us act in the world?

Beckett’s sense of the absurd, despair, but also ACTION.

“Where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”

There was the Austrian playwright, Otto Von Horvath who died in Paris on June 1 1938 when a branch of a tree fell on his head, as I recall, about the same time, pre war. Paris, of course, people didn’t know it was pre war, necessarily. They had a fairly good guess but didn’t know it was “pre-occupation Paris”,  (see what I did there?)

. I presume a lot of them had a mental model that it would be a rerun of World War One, only with bigger explosions.

Anyway, Sword of Damocles in it all our lives are hanging by a thread/ending of Stand by Me by the late great Rob Reiner 

The source that it comes from, if necessary, 

Xxx

The other things that you could read about this or watch 

I should read the Molloy trilogy – I stared Malone Dies without realising it’s mid…

What do you think?

If you have opinions or info about this, or other things that happened on this day that are worth knowing, let me know!

Also on this day

January 7 – Wikipedia

January 7 – WCH | Stories

Categories
International processes

The G7 and climate change – srsly, why is anyone still pretending?

Another G7, and of course, the usual largely presentist/ahistorical “think”pieces about what the G7 can do on climate (see here, here and here).

A few fun facts for you.

Carbon dioxide was first on the G7’s lips at the Tokyo meeting in… wait for it, wait for it… 1979. NINETEEN SEVENTY GODDAMMIT NINE. Which is, (taking off shoes to count), FORTY SIX YEARS AGO.

“We need to expand alternative sources of energy, especially those which will help to prevent further pollution, particularly increases of carbon dioxide and sulphur oxides in the atmosphere.”

And the following year, in Venice? Well, they promised to increase coal production.

Together we intend to double coal production and use by early 1990. We will encourage long-term commitments by coal producers and consumers. It will be necessary to improve infrastructures in both exporting and importing countries, as far as is economically justified, to ensure the required supply and use of coal. We look forward to the recommendations of the International Coal Industry Advisory Board. 

Then in 1985, at Bonn, (then capital of West Germany) in the aftermath of the Ozone Hole discovery, more warm words.

We shall also address other concerns such as climatic change, the protection of the ozone layer and the management of toxic chemicals and hazardous wastes

Then, in 1989, in Paris, with “the Greenhouse Effect” on everyone’s lips, yet more warm words.

1989 Economic Declaration “We believe that the conclusion of a framework or umbrella convention on climate change to set out general principles or guidelines is urgently required to mobilize and rationalize the efforts made by the international community… Specific protocols containing concrete commitments could be fitted into the framework as scientific evidence requires and permits.”

Buried at Houston the following year, back on the agenda in London in 1991. And on and on and on it goes.

Seriously, I know we are trained to tug our forelocks to our Lords and Masters, that this is the KEY skill you have to learn if you want to get through the filters of higher education and into one of roles of the punditocracy (be it academic, journalistic, thinkwanky… sorry, tanky… or whatever), but really, when will we stop pretending???

That’s a rhetorical question, btw. “We” won’t. We will cling to our soothing stories of techno(crat)salvation as the waves close over our heads/the fires scorch our skin/choose your own death.

Categories
AFrica

 February 5, 1986 – Thomas Sankara Imperialism is the arsonist of our forests and savannas 

Thirty nine years ago, on this day, February 5th, 1986 President of Burkina Faso  Thomas Sankara dropped some truth bombs in Paris.

This struggle to defend the trees and Forests is above all a struggle against imperialism. . Imperialism is the arsonist of our forests and savannas,”  

Shttps://www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/1986/february/05.htm

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 347ppm. As of 2025 it is 426ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that Thomas Sankara was a throwback to the 1960s and 70s, military fatigue, fiery language. And here we have fiery languages, 100% accurate.

What I think we can learn from this is that people on the pointy end of capitalism, imperialism, and expropriation don’t need textbooks or PhDs to explain to them that they are getting shafted and that the planet is getting shafted. They just need their eyes. And they have them.

What happened next Sankara was killed in a bloody military coup the following year. And that kind of rhetoric about imperialism and expropriation, exploitation, devastation was not really apparent in the Brundtland Commission. Oddly enough.

For more on Sankara, see this 2020 piece on Verso’s blog.

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
France International processes

July 16, 1989 – Paris agreement on climate…

The Paris Agreement; World leaders gather in Paris and talk about climate change and make big promises. Am I talking about 2015? No, I’m talking about the G7 in 1989 thirty five years ago, on this day, July 13th, 1989.

1989 Economic Declaration “We believe that the conclusion of a framework or umbrella convention on climate change to set out general principles or guidelines is urgently required to mobilize and rationalize the efforts made by the international community… Specific protocols containing concrete commitments could be fitted into the framework as scientific evidence requires and permits.”

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/paris-economic-summit-economic-declaration

THATCHER GIVES PRESS CONFERENCE, usual warm words https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107731

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 353ppm. As of 2024 it is 426ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the G7 meetings had started originally as a one-off at Rambouillet in November 1975 as part of the concern that Western leaders had about stagflation. labour unrest (which is a cute way of setting the slaves aren’t willing to be slaves at the same rate anymore) and general sense of things falling apart. The leaders liked it so much they made it an annual event. And in 1979, carbon dioxide buildup and climate change even been onto the agenda, some vague promises, {LINK]

But then by 1980, Venice, that was all forgotten. And it was more coal all the time [link}. 

Fun fact. The pivotal “Changing Atmosphere” conference that had happened in 1988, the pivotal one had taken place in the same venue as the G7 meeting.

What we learn is that people like turning up in Paris and making agreements. It makes them feel good and important. So, beautiful city even if it has become a theme park for itself. And here we are.

What happened next? Well, funnily enough, the G7 in Houston next year didn’t mention climate at all. Why could that be? And the climate issue rose to a peak in summer of ‘92. And then it was perceived to have been more or less resolved. Because you know, now we had a treaty, we had some fine words, everything would be fine.

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: 

July 16, 1990 – Canberra Times gives denialist tosh a platform

July 16, 1992 – American scientist claims “no firm evidence” of #climate change Australian National Press Club #denial