Letter: Hotter summers will harm workers

We are breaking heat records again this summer. Imagine what it must be like to work long hours picking our crops in this heat. “Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. Heat waves everywhere are projected to become more intense.” https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/ “Episodes of extreme heat can have serious societal, agricultural, economic, and ecological impacts, with heat being the number one weather-related killer.” (National Weather Service 2012).

David Arkush and David Michaels (Spokesman-Review, July 2018), said, “Heat stress is possibly one of the leading workplace dangers in America. And climate change is making it deadlier. We need to protect workers from extreme heat before it grows more intense. That’s where we are headed on our current greenhouse-gas pollution path. And as climate impacts go, losing summer outdoor labor in whole regions of the United States is the small stuff. We need to get ahead of this problem before we face devastating consequences for public health and the economy.” Rep. Dan Newhouse’s interest in local agriculture should include concern about the threat of extreme heat to its workforce, and action to slow global warming.