Kudos for climate action

Kudos to the City Council for taking on climate change. Nonsense to those who say that the Council should only fill potholes. While filling potholes is indeed important, so is ensuring that future generations don’t inherit a scorched and unlivable earth.

But while the council’s actions should be applauded, they aren’t nearly enough to make a dent. Given the abandonment of all climate policy at the national level by head-in-the-sand climate deniers, cities must begin to fill that vacuum and bend the curve by directly regulating or banning all activities which cause climate change, in addition to taking steps to decrease the city’s own emissions. As declared by an Oregon federal court last year, that may also mean recognizing that the people of Spokane possess a fundamental constitutional right to a livable climate; a right that the city must legally take actions to protect.

Otherwise, we’re just going through the motions- rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In the face of our own head-in-the-sand climate deniers right here in Spokane, it’s time to take those next steps. All of our futures depend upon it.

Thomas Linzey, executive director, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, Inc.

Spokane