July Cheers & Jeers

We’re a week into August already, so our first Jeers for this July Cheers & Jeers column should probably go to the fact that rainy, dismal months like January and February seem to drag on forever while the sunny days of July and August fly by faster than a reporter typing on deadline.

Of course, summertime in the Pacific Northwest isn’t nearly as pleasant as it was before the realities of a quickly warming planet began to hit us — sending temperatures soaring above 100 degrees for an entire week, contributing to more intense, more destructive forest fires, stressing our flora and fauna and, as we witnessed during the summer of 2021 and again just last month, harming vulnerable outdoor workers and other neighbors who could not find respite from the relentless heat wave. Our second Jeers goes out to the people who could be helping tame runaway climate change but who, due to politics or greed or maybe just years of believing the fossil fuel industry’s disinformation campaign that promised climate change wasn’t real — or was real, but wasn’t caused by humans … or was real and maybe caused by humans, but was overblown … or was real and caused by humans and critical but way too expensive to do anything about — have failed to act and have even voted against legislation that would provide the resources necessary to reduce our nation’s carbon emissions.