USA TODAY International Edition
Other Views: Heat exposure impacts creatures big and small
“The June heat dome that encased much of ( British Columbia) coincided with the lowest tides of the year, leaving a long band of intertidal roadkill, carnage of a magnitude likely unprecedented in Canada’s Pacific waters. ... When people get too hot, they can move to the shade. But most of these creatures are stuck to rocks. ... A University of B. C. zoologist estimated over a billion creatures died. ... As disturbing as this intertidal zone’s ecological wipeout is, it is just one of many impacts of the heat dome’s blast radius. Birds, insects, pets, people, bacteria and plants of all shapes and sizes were hit hard. The relationships between these systems are so complex that we will never understand every component affected by climate.”
Katharine J. Mach and A. R. Siders, The New York Times:
“In 1993, the town of Valmeyer, Ill., did something unusual. Instead of risking yet another disaster, it used funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state of Illinois to move the entire town a few miles away to higher ground. As the climate continues to change, more and more communities will contemplate taking actions like Valmeyer’s. Rather than merely build levees or weatherize homes, communities will purposefully move away from places threatened by floods, droughts, fires or high temperatures. This strategy is known as managed retreat. ... With deliberation and foresight, communities or governments can relocate homes, businesses, infrastructure or even entire cities in ways that keep communities safe, sustain jobs and economies and help advance the cause of social justice.”
Megan McArdle, The Washington Post:
“Carbon tariffs are a political gimmick that won’t solve the real problems they ostensibly address, and might well introduce new ones. ... Such taxes are less a revenue juggernaut than an administrative nightmare: How do you determine the carbon ‘ cost’ of a product in a country where carbon isn’t priced? Nor do they necessarily drive all that much environmental cleanup, because so much of what a country such as China produces is destined for its domestic market or consumers in countries with similarly lax environmental standards. ... It’s even more challenging in the United States, which doesn’t currently have a domestic carbon price or the bureaucracy to administer one.”