A Burning Hot Problem - Editorial
Thick, stagnant humidity has plagued the recent summer weeks and we can no longer pretend to ignore it.
How can we, when the damp air bowls you over like a steamroller the minute you open the front door? There is little respite, save for central air conditioning. Even the breezes rolling in off the water, for those lucky to live near it, feel coagulated under such oppressive conditions.
The Cape is not alone in its suffering; Boston, most of New England, even large swaths of the country are feeling the heat, too.
Temperatures don’t look like they will be letting up in the coming days. We do not want to be the Debby Downer in town; a hot summer on Cape Cod is not the worst thing in the world—it can be nice when the heat lingers after the sun goes down, creating perfect conditions for a night outdoors without worrying about a sweater. But our concern is a more long-term one, a slow burn metaphorically eating away at our consciousness and literally eating away at the ozone layer.
Global warming. That is what really smacks us in the face when we open our front door. At least, it might as well be. It is all that comes to mind each time we leave the frosty confines of the central air conditioning—which, by the way, is contributing to the greenhouse gas problem itself; the United Nations has already told us that. It is only expected to get worse, but even today we can practically feel all the heat and gas and air pollution of the world trapped beneath the ozone layer, stifling us all.
Most have heard that ongoing climate change is a long-term and large-scale contributor to what we’re experiencing; many acknowledge it, too, but far fewer actually concern themselves with it, and fewer still seem willing to do anything about it. That seems to be true both culturally and politically these days. But we find ourselves growing more and more concerned as the summers get wetter, hotter and more stifling, and the white winters once known across New England become a thing of mere memory.
How can you fight—and win—against a problem that half the county isn’t concerned about, or doesn’t believe in? We aren’t sure. But something needs to change, to happen, and we must evolve to see the deadly problem that lies before us.
We should all be hoping that a path forward, toward a healthier planet, is on the horizon. So much depends on that, from our coastlines and our environments to the health and sheer survival of future generations. It’s time to talk about the blazing hot elephant in the room, but that conversation must start now—you can’t talk when the room is airless, and the clock is ticking.