Deaths were in main in people over age of 85
Portugal’s energy giant GALP has been made to take the fall today for the 284 excess deaths during the stultifying heatwave at the end of June.
In spite of the fact that the country frequently suffers heatwaves in the summer, climate activists for Climáximo blame GALP fully for what they describe as “a massacre”.
The detail that this massacre affected the most frail individuals who had, in the main, already exceeded ‘average life expectancy’, seems to have counted for nothing.
Thus, the group – this time led by a woman in her 70s – “invaded” GALP’s headquarters in Lisbon to scatter 284 paper crosses (‘in memory of the victims’) across the floor of the atrium.
Septuagenarian Anne Morrison referred to the heatwave that “suffocated the country, as well as several other European countries”, insisting it was “not a mere meteorological anomaly.
“In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Health has estimated that 284 more people have died than expected – adding to the number already expected due to the high temperatures. These people are not just statistics: they are grandparents, parents, friends, neighbours, community members (…) this figure should shock us all as a society”, she told a camera.
“We have to call a spade a spade”, she went on: “Oil companies have known about the disastrous effects of oil exploration for decades, warned by dozens of scientific reports’. Even so, and even as we see “the consequences of the climate crisis – such as the extreme rise in temperatures – unfolding before our eyes”, in the middle of a crucial decade for climate action, GALP opens new oil wells (such as those sunk in Namibia)’.
“We are not asking for or demanding anything: they have declared war on people and the planet and if they are not stopped they will continue to profit at our expense. Our appeal is to Portuguese society: we cannot consent to this profound injustice. They are destroying our future, the future of our children and grandchildren. We must fight for a just society on a habitable planet, together,” Ms Morrison concluded.
This appears to be the first time Climáximo has used a senior citizen to lead an initiative. This may be because of the fines and suspended jail sentences previously handed out to younger representatives of the group.
Source: SIC Notícias
