The heat inequality facing King County is simply reflective of the world at large. The climate crisis disproportionately affects those who have contributed the least to causing it. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I lived for two years on a small island in the Republic of Vanuatu. There, the majority practice a subsistence lifestyle. Their use of fossil fuels was limited to a few pickup trucks, generators and weed whackers.
However, the consequences of the climate crisis have already disturbed traditional lifestyles in Vanuatu. Changes in the timing and duration of precipitation alter the availability of cultivated and gathered food. More frequent and severe storms give little time for recovery.
I applaud U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, who is a co-sponsor of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act and urge readers to contact their representatives to endorse it and other measures that will hold our country responsible for the havoc we are wreaking elsewhere.
Martha McAlister, Anacortes