King County Executive Dow Constantine preys on our misery

It’s still hot and it’s going to get worse. It’s expected to hit well over 90 degrees this holiday weekend and even though we’ve poked fun at people who can’t deal with the heat over the last couple editions of the Jason Rantz Show, the truth is, I’m mocking myself because I can’t handle it.

I’m absolutely miserable. With the office AC temporarily offline, I got crankier and crankier with the rising temperature to the point where, perhaps in a fever dream, I started thinking about what if global warming is, in fact, man-made and man-influenced (to a meaningful degree), and not cyclical in nature.

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Because the truth is, both sides of the debate are guessing – they’re making educated guesses, some more educated than others, and that’s the case for either side of the debate. And yes, there are two sides to this argument.

But I did start to wonder if global warming is man-made because the one thing I don’t do well in is the heat. Is this what it will be like? Will it be worse? (Cliff Mass seems to think we’ll be the winners in climate change!)

And just about that time when I was thinking about the issue of global warming, we received an email with a blog post from King County Executive Dow Constantine and it’s like he knew what I was feeling! But he decided to prey on my misery (all of our misery) to push his agenda:

“From increasingly hot and dry summers, to the lack of winter snow, climate change is already impacting the environment, health, economy, and quality of life in King County,” said Executive Constantine. “Pledges and good intentions won’t get us to our climate goals or meet our commitment to future generations. The Strategic Climate Action Plan maps out clear targets and priority actions to address climate change in collaboration with our cities, energy providers, businesses, and residents.”

We’re suffering in the heat and he uses it as an opportunity to push an agenda that won’t really offer us much relief (not even long term). It’s just blatant opportunism.

In this case, his plan makes one ask of us that would actually make us even more miserable. He wants us to take the bus.

He wants us out of our cars and onto the bus. I can’t think of anything worse to do on a hot summer day than ride in a dirty bus full of sweaty slobs as miserable as I am with all this heat.

For a lot of us, the only respite we get is our commute home in the car with the AC on full blast. It’s one of the only times when we’re OK with a longer than normal commute because not only do we get to listen to KIRO Radio longer (particularly the Jason Rantz Show, weeknights 7pm-10pm), but we get air conditioning that most of us don’t have in our homes or apartments.

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They could do a better job of promoting carpooling, not riding the bus, but they won’t because they hate cars. So much so that the drivers who do carpool are now subject to tolls, unless they get more folks in the car.

There’s this reluctance from environmentalists to accept the country’s car culture. You can hate on it all you want, but that won’t change culture. Not one that is so engrained in our everyday lives; something that economy’s are built on.

But they can’t get over their hate, so they keep pushing messages that fail. And I can’t think of a bigger loser than the idea of riding the bus when it’s hot.