One year ago, on this day, June 28th,
Death of street cleaner in Barcelona – Montse Aguilar died on June 28 after arriving at home and working outside, while temperatures were around 35ºC
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 427ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 432ppm. 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 for this was that we have been warned – at first quietly and speculatively, sort of – and then with increasing further since 1988 about extreme weather events. And we had them in 2003 for example, with the European heat wave that killed 1000s. But we persisted.
The specific context was that – well, this was a year ago. Your short term memory should be able to fill in the blanks.
What I think we can learn is this: that it’s going to be the vulnerable who get hit first. Life is a shit sandwich: the more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat. The vulnerable being the people who do manual labour in hot conditions without air conditioning at home, who have poor diets, unmet health needs, etc, basically disposable people. And so it came to pass.
What will happen next? Those rich white people who think that their money will protect them are in for sooner or later, a rude awakening. But in the meantime, countless billions of living things will be destroyed on the altar of their greed and stupidity.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
May 29, 2025 – Daughter sues Exxon for mother’s heat death
References
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:
June 28, 1988 – Greenies want deep emissions cuts. Doesn’t happen. #TorontoTarget
June 28, 1994 – Faulkner says carbon tax a possibility – All Our Yesterdays
June 28, 1994 – Australian Foreign Minister says “then again, maybe we won’t” on carbon cuts