Heatwaves and Strategy
It’s hot here. For anyone reading outside the UK, the country broke its June temperature record yesterday, and today may go higher again. I should have been running a workshop in London today for the Independent Publishers Guild, but after discussions with the client, and with official advice to avoid anything except urgent rail travel, we rescheduled it. A logistics company blamed heat disruption for failing to deliver something to my office yesterday. And my daughter’s school has been closed.
Running club was cancelled too, so a few of us sat outside the pub talking about the weather—because, well, we’re British. But what struck me was the clear dividing line between knowledge workers able to rearrange work and life around disruption, school closures and travel warnings, and people in service occupations without that luxury. The worst impacts of this are not being evenly experienced.
It reminded me of some of the social divisions exposed during the pandemic. The difference is that climate disruption is not a one-off shock. It is becoming something businesses and society will need to plan for on a seasonal basis. I wonder how many leaders are thinking about this as the start of a trend, not a one-off. How many are reconsidering service availability or working patterns, or scenario planning for the 2030s?
Five years ago, in one of the lockdowns, I remember listening to the audiobook of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future and thinking it was terrifying but ultimately hopeful science fiction. It won’t make you any cooler this week, but its lessons may stay with you (link in the comments).