On this day, September 28, 1997, Australian denialist Ray Evans sprayed his usual nonsense.
1997 Climate Treaty fosters economic impoverishment and endangers US Sovereignty. Washington, D.C. Heritage Foundation, backgrounder No 1143.
The forthcoming Conference… on Climate Change.. in Kyoto… is the next occasion where the Environmentalists will seek to build their Berlin Wall. That Wall will take the form of an international institution… empowered to monitor, and regulate, the C02 emissions of the countries who sign the Kyoto Protocol, and, presumably, impose penalties upon those countries.
NR Evans, Executive Officer, WMC Resources Ltd Australia, speaking at the International Conservative Congress, Washington DC, Sept 28, 1997.
Context – Australian fossil interests had been pushing hard against a climate treaty since 1990. The Australian Government had been sorta divided on this, but always with the pro-coal interests having the upper-hand. Then John Howard became Prime Minister (March 1996) and went all-out in 1997 to try to get Australia the most generous terms imaginable. This effort by the vile Ray Evans should be seen against that backdrop.
On this day the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide was 360.44 ppm. At time of writing it’s 420ish.
Why this matters.
The denial campaigns worked. Bravo
What happened next?
We didn’t act at the speed and scale we needed to.