It started, as many questionable decisions do, with a vibe. MJ was in one of her moods, where she was supposed to be doing sensible things but instead got a bit distracted, reminiscing about '90s mullets and hair crimping, and wondering whether Alanis Morissette was actually talking about climate inaction when she wrote "Ironic." (She wasn't. But still.)
The 90s band aesthetic landed for us at The Climatics as a little bit of fun. It felt like exactly the kind of energy a climate philanthropy organisation probably wasn't supposed to have, which made it feel exactly right.
So we embraced it. And then MJ emerged from her 90’s daydreaming and asked Pip a question that tends to follow any particularly fun ideas… hey Pip, what does this actually mean in relation to climate?
Enter Pip.
Pip… our resident climate strategy brain, and proud wearer of what we affectionately call the nerd burger hat… started pulling at the thread. If we're really going to put out a ‘90s vibe, we figured, we should probably get clearer on what was actually happening in the 90s. Climate-wise that is, not just butterfly clips and frosted tips.
Turns out heaps was happening. I mean, climate change is not new. It's not a 2019 discovery or a pandemic-era revelation. The science, warnings and early policy battles were all happening decades ago. This era in particular was pivotal, with international frameworks being hammered out, landmark reports being released, and the first real attempts at global coordination underway. Some of it was hopeful and some of it, in retrospect, was almost unbelievably close to a turning point that didn't quite turn.
In the 1990s, the world came surprisingly close to getting its act together. The IPCC's first assessment report landed in 1990 and was, by the standards of scientific understatement, pretty unambiguous. It stated that this is real, this is happening, pay attention. The frameworks were being built too. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio produced the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This was signed by 154 countries and felt like exactly the coordinated global response the situation called for. There were rooms full of people, governments included, who seemed to understand what was at stake and wanted to do something about it.
Then came Kyoto in 1997 which was a binding treaty, hard-won, that the US ultimately never ratified, and which quietly signalled how the next few decades would go. The question of whether humanity would collectively respond in time was left wide open. And then the moment passed. A series of smaller decisions, deferrals, and compromises that felt reasonable at the time and set the course we're still navigating. This history moment makes us feel a little wistful. A sliding door that’s still visible, if you squint.
We found stepping back in time like this fascinating and also a bit haunting. It seemed like an opportunity….
So we're making a series.
If you follow us on socials (and if you don't, now might be a good moment to start), you're going to start seeing something called Turn Back Time. A trip through the climate hits and dubious misses of the 1990s. The moments that mattered, the decisions that shaped what came next, and the reminder that we've known about all of this for ages. Oh, and of course there’s going to be the musical hits too - because if we’re going back to the 90s, we’re going back properly. Expect some bangers.
It's part history, part explainer, and part zoom in on what was happening when. Facts, questionable 90s references… we think it’s shaping up to be quite good.
The Climatics ‘90s band vibe whimsy didn't go anywhere, we just dug into some context.
We reckon that while the aesthetic matters in a good band, it's even better when there's something real underneath it. Rocking a curtain fringe is just more fun when the music is worth it too.
Come back in time with us while we rock the series like a 90s playlist. We’ve got Meat Loaf doing absolutely everything for love, the Spice Girls convincing an entire generation that platform shoes were a sensible choice, and then there's the climate stuff that was arguably more important but somehow never quite got the airplay.
Find us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn — and if you've got opinions about what the 90s actually sounded like, we suspect you'll fit right in.
