Twenty five years ago, on this day, July 9th, 2001,
Paula Dobriansky and Donald “will asshole for money” Pearlman meet July 9,
“In other meetings documented in the papers, Ms Dobriansky meets Don Pearlman, an international anti-Kyoto lobbyist who has been a paid adviser to the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments, both of which have followed the US line against Kyoto.
The purpose of the meeting with Mr Pearlman, who also represents the secretive anti-Kyoto Climate Council, which the administration says “works against most US government efforts to address climate change”, is said to be to “solicit [his] views as part of our dialogue with friends and allies”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jun/08/usnews.climatechange
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 the resistance to international climate action in the late 1980s/early 1990s was channelled through the so-called Global Climate Coalition (oil companies, auto companies etc) and the Climate Council, much smaller, less gaudy and probably more effective. Basically, Don Pearlman helped the Middle Eastern dictatorships scupper meaningful climate action.
Right now, I hope the scumbag is rotting in hell.
The specific context was that by now the Bush Administration had pulled out of Kyoto and was probably looking for ways to be even more evil on the question of climate.
What I think we can learn from this is that evil exists. It’s often very competent, effective and well-paid.
What happened next. Pearlman died in 2005. Too late, and not painful enough, but there you are.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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See also
That play, Kyoto.
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.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
July 9, 1962 – rainbow bomb parties as hydrogen bomb explodes
July 9, 1965 – “Spaceship Earth” is launched, trying to get us to see our fragility (didn’t work)
July 9, 1987 – “Unpleasant surprises in the greenhouse” warns Broecker
July 9, 1990- Green Christians’ 12 commandments
July 9, 2004 – David Bellamy jumps the shark on climate change
July 9, 2008 – President Bush operating at his peak intellectual capacity