Fight the home fires first

Shawn Vestal’s May 24 Spokesman article on the annual wildfire smoke coming our way (“Get ready for (cough) summer wildfires”) was well-written and provided a lot of interesting facts. Vestal provided solid research that warming climate change is greatly exacerbating the August smoke that blankets Spokane.

However, Vestal’s article missed the important point that while our own Governor Jay Inslee is running for president on a climate change platform, he has not been moved to muster the necessary firefighting and prevention strategies to solve this problem in his own state. If Inslee cannot solve this climate-related problem in his state, why would we think he’s the guy who can solve it on a national and worldwide scale? And, if Inslee were to ever get into the top three for four presidential candidate range, other candidates would certainly bring this point to national addition.

If Governor Inslee is serious about his climate change platform, let us see what he can do about this annual August smoke in Spokane; he should look at it as an opportunity to boost his campaign. Certainly, if heavy smoke hung in the air for weeks every summer in Olympia, more massive firefighting and fire prevention strategies would have been developed by Inslee.

Larry Vandervert

Spokane