You can help beat the heat
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Editor,
Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s been rather hot of late. True, not record-breaking heat as in California and Nevada, but still, unusual for its tenacity. This is pretty much what scientists have been telling us to expect as we continue to emit carbon-trapping gasses into the atmosphere (although they’ve been amazed by 12 consecutive months of record high temperatures globally). For some of us, heat is an annoyance we can live with, but for those with no choice but to work out in it, it can be positively deadly. Looking more broadly, it’s a reminder that modern human civilization - agriculture, fisheries, physical infrastructure, relationships with disease vectors - has developed under conditions of a remarkably stable climate, and thus even a seemingly minor warming (2-3 degrees F, on average) has thrown us into unknown territory.
On our current trajectory, our kids and grandkids will look back at us and wonder what we were complaining about because they will be experiencing yet hotter temperatures and more extreme weather events. But the good news is that we can help them out now. On a family level, we can help turn down the global thermostat by being efficient in our energy use, bundling trips, ensuring appliances are efficient, insulating houses, minimizing wasted food going to the dump (all of which save us money). But because fossil-fuels are so thoroughly baked into our economy, hastening the transition to clean energy also requires that we act collectively through policies and incentives. This doesn’t have to mean coercive government, but it requires our leaders to act smartly, with our grandkids in mind. With elections looming, let’s ask candidates seeking our vote: Are you interested in minimizing the harms our increasingly angry atmosphere will visit on future generations by easing and hastening the transition to clean and sustainable energy? Or are you content to kick the can down the road?
Rich Harris
Charlo
