A dispatch from under the heat dome that shattered temperature records in the Pacific Northwest --- In a city deadened by heat, the only hive of activity I spotted was at the public park that was the epicenter of Portland’s street protests and federal occupation last year. A half-dozen activists sat in folding chairs, camped under a canopy tent that read “Community Jail Support.” They were set up, as usual, to provide what leftists call “mutual aid,” to people exiting jail at the county Justice Center, as well as to a homeless encampment lining the nearby sidewalk. Tables and a shopping cart were stacked with water and Gatorade bottles dropped off by volunteers dedicated to serving these communities. Portland is not built for this heat. About a third of Portlanders have no air conditioning. That rises to well over half of residents in nearby Seattle. But I’m not sure any place is built for this heat. And that’s the problem. The emerging extremes of climate change are survivable with the right infrastructure. But our legacy infrastructure literally buckles and melts under this new reality.

"Climate change isn't your grandchildren's problem, it’s yours.” --- “There are wide disparities in who is being exposed to the heat,” she said. “For the privileged, it’s an inconvenience. Other individuals don’t have a choice.” Among those most affected are those who have no readily available shelter, people experiencing homelessness and people who work in agriculture or construction. […] Researchers at Portland State University found that areas historically subject to racist housing discrimination policies such as red-lining are home to “urban heat islands” where temperatures can sometimes be as much as 13 degrees hotter than other parts of the city. These areas have historically been denied investments in greenspace and tree cover that act as cooling mechanisms in more affluent parts of Portland.

In 1993, Portland was the first city in the US to create a climate action plan, yet we still don’t consistently report our results. This lack of basic accounting allows government agencies to control the progress narrative and doesn’t allow for the honest reckoning this issue demands. This lapse in basic accountability begs us to ask whether the city’s Bureau of Planning & Sustainability (BPS, who compiles the report) or the Mayor who oversees them, is either not competent enough to monitor the biggest crisis of our generation, is trying to spin the truth, or simply doesn’t care enough to prioritize it.