Cancelled due to extreme heat

I was going to cancel this week’s post due to the heat — then I noticed I wasn’t alone.

We are currently living or rather sweating through the second heatwave this year. It’s really quite bad. There is talk about heat domes and wet bulbs, new climate words that I have been talking about over the last few years; words that are not so new any more. They encapsulate, as the saying goes, the new norm.

What is new this year is that the heatwave has led to a sort of tragicomedy where events that should have discussed issues such as heatwaves, climate resilience, even the climate emergency, are being cancelled because of the heat!! I just wanted to collect a few of them as reminder for future years that we are living in very strange times.

It all started with me noticing this alert on Bluesky which made me laugh out loud, in a sort of sad and ironic way. The Grantham Research Institute at the LSE posted this on 23 June 2026: “We regret that our event on Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world has been cancelled due to the red extreme heat warning issued by the UK Met Office. Our apologies to everyone who was planning to attend the event.” As The Mirror said: “In an irony not lost on its organisers, a climate event focused on extreme heat has been cancelled because of extreme heat.”

A commenter said in a reply: “Surely the epitome of irony…”

The quips on Reddit went right to the point: “Who could have predic- oh, wait, these exact ones right here? ‘We’re cancelling in-person meetings due to heat, and officially renaming the conference We Told You So-Con 2026.’” And: “The hideous poetry of apathy, causing calamity.” From apathy to calamity and from irony to tragedy, climate change has it all.

The Standard provided more background information for this calamitous cancellation and more irony; a real pile-up of ironies: “The meeting, due to take place at the Shaw Library at the London School of Economics on Wednesday as part of Climate Action Week, was called off after the Met Office issued a Red Extreme Heat Warning for London and parts of England…. The event […], was organised by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. In a social media post on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance said: ‘The event venue, like most buildings in London, does not have any cooling mechanisms in place, and we cannot risk the wellbeing of speakers or guests by subjecting everyone to very unpleasant indoor conditions in addition to hot journeys to the venue.’”

Here the irony turns to tragedy. We hear the Greek chorus sing: “We told you so”…. Climate change is here and we need to adapt our buildings, the buildings we are supposed to live and work in.

Then I saw this, irony of ironies. Dr Charlie Gardner posted: “Reform UK councillors have introduced a motion to rescind King’s Lynn and West Norfolk’s climate emergency declaration and deprioritise decarbonisation efforts The council were going to vote on it on Thursday But the meeting has been postponed due to extreme heat”

As a reply rightly pointed out: “I keep saying it – satirists are going to starve to death.” Climate change victims are everywhere.

Irony and humour are great and offer some relief in these heat-stressed times. But really, it’s time to go beyond irony and develop a strategy. To start with, treat heat like Covid and use video conferencing. We have learned to use it in the last few years. Don’t cancel; collaborate. From airborne to aircon, there are things to discuss.

PS: AND NOW THIS!!!

Image: Pixabay: Wooden thermometer against red hot sky