Forty four years ago, on this day, October 4th, 1982,
Koyaanisqatsi (English pronunciation: /koʊjɑːnɪsˈkɑːtsiː/[3]), also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, is a 1982 American experimental film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 341ppm. 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 that through the 70s the hippies had begun to realise that they were in fact right, that you couldn’t have infinite growth on a finite planet, that it doesn’t profit a man much to gain the whole world if he loses his biosphere, and there were ongoing struggles, decolonization hadn’t been the panacea that the more optimistic among had hoped for.
The specific context was, well, you can read about Koyaanisqatsi here.
What I think we can learn from this is that artists and filmmakers and creatives, generally to use an ugly term, have known which way was up and have known that the hippies were largely right.
What happened next There was another film, Powaquaatsi, a few years later.
There keep being new films, which are going to change things, and then they don’t. These things don’t change things, and here we are.
On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays
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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:
October 4, 1957 – see, see – SPUTNIK!! – All Our Yesterdays
October 4, 1990 – “Verdict on our efficiency: we must try harder” – All Our Yesterdays