![]() ![]() These are not regular people-they are, disproportionately, senior citizens and millionaires, with means of keeping cool that are not available to everyone-but they, too, live under the weighted blanket. This powerful minority includes the President of the United States and all five hundred and thirty-five voting members of Congress. The truly tragic irony is that there are a few thousand people on Earth (fossil-fuel profiteers, government officials, and some who fit both descriptions) who could decide, right now, to start abating the emergency, if only they wanted to. It’s common to refer to this as a collective-action problem, or a global tragedy, as if all the death and suffering were somehow preordained. ![]() ![]() This is a fact-an ongoing slow-motion emergency-that has already upended the lives of millions of people and could soon injure or displace hundreds of millions more, most of whom are powerless to do much about it. But record-breaking heat, as we know, is the new normal, not just in D.C. This year’s was especially brutal-a thick weighted blanket of mugginess, the kind that makes you want to duck into the nearest Au Bon Pain and spend several hours carefully selecting a beverage. If the mere mention of Capitol Hill doesn’t already fill you with a queasy combination of torpor and despair, then you really must visit during a late-July heat wave. ![]()
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