Eighteen years ago, on this day, July 31st, 2008,
Some (Trot-inspired/’led’) activists held a “Climate caravan” thing in the UK. Gaia help us.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was xxxppm. 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 by 2008 exhaustion was setting in among climate activists. They’d been rallying, camping, marching for a couple of years (longer for some) and although there was the promise of a Climate Change Act (yay), nobody held out much hope for the sort of fundamental transformational change that was needed.
What I think we can learn from this – most upsurges in activity/ concern last two or three years (less if a pandemic gets in the way).
What happened next – after Copenhagen the movement was basically gone like a fist when you open your palm, give or take a couple of dead-cat bounces.
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 31, 1981 – US politicians hold “carbon dioxide and climate” hearings.
July 31, 1981 – Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect