Humanity’s greatest threat

Thanks to Shawn Vestal’s August 10 column (“Triple-digit heat shows climate emergency is here”) for calling attention to the dire warnings of the IPCC climate report’s first section, on scientific findings, released August 9.

However, the climate emergency is moving too fast for any reporter. Just today the same report’s concluding section, on climate solutions, was leaked eight months ahead of schedule by scientists worried that fossil-fueled governments would water it down as they have previous reports.

This leaked report conclusion says the need for action is so far beyond urgent, we must peak global emissions in four years, shut down all fossil-fueled electricity in ten, and we should regard this as the worst crisis humanity has ever faced.

Yet too many treat the Inland Northwest as a refuge from reality where one can get away with anything. Monster trucks. Ski boats. ATVs. RVs. Snowmobiles. Hot rods and Harleys. Inefficient homes in car-dependent suburbs from Deer Park to Rockford, Hayden Lake to Cheney.

Don’t we care that this helps cause famines, civil wars and millions of deaths? I want to hand my kids a livable world, which looks unlikely.

Of the many names for those who make gigantic messes while dumping their deadly costs onto others, “freeloader” may be the kindest.

Let’s not be freeloaders. Step up. Insist on better alternatives. Follow climate science. Join 350 Spokane, Sunrise, the Sierra Club and others making a difference here.

The stakes are now officially life and death on a scale no generation has ever seen.

David Camp

Spokane