Boiling Point: This heat is not normal

Judith More, 13, doesn’t mind a little cool water on her head, courtesy of sister Suzanne More, 17, at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley on Sunday as their mother, Laetitia Cherbonnel, left, takes in the view. With brutal temperatures, unprecedented ocean warming and wildfire smoke engulfing major cities, Americans may feel as though they’re auditioning for the climate disaster film “The Day After Tomorrow,” my colleague Jenny Jarvie writes. Also check out this story by my colleagues Suhauna Hussain, Emerson Drewes and Jen Yamato, about Southern California’s “hot labor summer” as striking Hollywood writers and actors, hotel staff, delivery truck drivers and fast-food employees picket in the dangerous heat, demanding fair wages and working conditions — including, in some cases, cooler indoor temperatures. California’s got a new law designed to protect Joshua trees from housing construction, renewable energy development and climate change, after state regulators deadlocked on an Endangered Species Act listing. Here’s the story from the Oregonian’s Alex Baumhardt, who quotes an Avista executive describing the company’s spending as “a prudent expenditure on behalf of our customers” because the climate program in question “negatively impacts our customers through reduced energy choice, higher costs and decreased reliability.” I was especially interested to read that response given my previous coverage of Southern California Gas Co., which responded to similar allegations by agreeing to charge certain pro-gas advocacy work to shareholders instead of customers.