Climate Justice Concerns Echo in 710 Fwy Planning

On July 24, the world’s first named heatwave — Category 3 Zoe — hit Seville, Spain, with temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, signaling a new level of awareness of the tragic course the world’s climate is headed down. Los Angeles, with more than 2 million people considered “highly vulnerable,” is one of half a dozen cities poised to follow Seville’s example with a new life-saving alert system, but we’re farther behind many European cities when it comes to a deeper response: changing our built environment to a more climate-resilient mode.

Triple-digits heat waves as far north as England blanketed Europe throughout June and July along with North Africa and the Middle East, bringing a wave of wildfires as well. In Portugal and Spain alone, deaths had topped 1,700 according to the World Health Organization, even before Zoe hit.

East Asia and North America were hit as well, with persistent triple digits in the Pacific Northwest.

In the midst of all this, Joe Biden’s efforts to pass climate legislation were abruptly derailed on July 14, when West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin withdrew his support — highlighting concerns about inflation — only to reverse course 13 days later, announcing support for a renamed “Inflation Reduction Act” that contains $369 billion in climate investments — substantially less than the $555 billion passed by the House of Representatives last fall, a figure that was already a compromise.

Using inflation first to kill climate legislation and then to sell it highlights a profound absurdity. Inflation today is a global phenomena, largely resulting from the pandemic and pandemics, in turn, will become increasingly common as a result of further global warming. The shifting of wildlife ranges “poses a measurable threat to global health, particu