Guest column: Did Big Oil cause the 2021 heat dome?

Published 8:29 am Monday, June 30, 2025

Four years ago, a killer heat dome struck the Pacific Northwest claiming the lives of over 800 people, including 100 Oregonians. For a three-day period, temperatures spiked to 116°F, while “urban heat islands” in Portland sizzled under 124°F heat. Climate experts agree that, but for fossil-fuel induced climate change, accelerated by a sophisticated and effective decades-long disinformation campaign by Big Oil, the heat dome would never have happened.

By now most of us know the numbers – in 2024 the planet breached the 1.5°C tipping point; atmospheric carbon and methane pollution reached record levels; the rate of carbon emissions peaked as oil and gas production skyrocketed; and summer temperatures in Portland have cranked up 4F since 1940. Meanwhile, insurance companies are warning that the economic cost of global warming is already in the trillions of dollars and will get much, much worse.  And every year the number of catastrophic climate change-related heat, smoke, wildfire, and flooding deaths hits a new high.

With all these dire and irrefutable warnings, why do we continue to delay holding Big Oil accountable for their deception that has generated so much life-threatening greenhouse gas pollution? Why do we kick the can down the road?

This morning when you looked up at the azure, blue Oregon sky, you would have no way of knowing that in the last 60 years the amount of atmospheric CO₂ has jumped from 315 to 426 PPM. For me, this means the amount of CO₂ I’m breathing into my lungs now is 30% higher than the day I was born.

We don’t think about this because we can’t see CO₂ gas. It’s colorless. What if it wasn’t? What if it was purple? The entire sky would then be a deep, foreboding purple, like an eggplant. Or, more sinisterly, like the color of The Joker’s Victorian tailcoat. Global warming would then be a whole lot harder to ignore.

In the 1980s, the public was shown images of huge holes in the ozone layer above the polar ice caps. Scientists proved that the holes were caused by Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were used in refrigerants and aerosol cans. The Reagan administration swiftly and prudently responded with a solution. And the U.S. and the rest of the world transitioned away from CFCs, a move which saved millions of Earthlings from skin cancer.

How do we know now that CO₂ pollution is super-heating the planet? Science. How do we know that CO₂ pollution is exacerbating the intensity, frequency, and duration of heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods? Science. How do we know that emissions from specific fossil fuel producers share responsibility for causing discrete extreme weather events, like 2021 PNW Heat Dome? Again, science.

And who is opposed to science? Our President and his entire administration. Like a madman, he’s been obliterating budgets for scientific research. Everything from curing cancer to purifying water. He even wants to roll back the ban on asbestos, a carcinogen responsible for the death of millions of Americans.  What’s next? Abolishing sewage treatment plants? Mandating the use of medieval chamber pots (of course, gold plated with ornate Trump branding)?

In addition to rejecting science, our President deplores jury trials. He recently signed executive order that aims to deny cities, counties, and states access to the civil court system to seek recovery for climate-related damages under centuries-old common law tort theories. He has ordered his Attorney General to devise ways to interfere with ongoing civil actions, like the case filed by Multnomah County two years ago, which asks carbon polluters to pick up the tab for their misconduct and not stick taxpayers with the bill.

Multnomah County’s Commissioners, unlike the Trump Administration, respect both science and the U.S. Constitution, which clearly allows states to use its police powers to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.

Multco will not be intimidated by threats of federal reprisals. For their courage and fidelity to the rule of law, as well as their commitment to protecting the public health and property, we owe them a debt of gratitude. Thanks for marshalling the scientific evidence to prove Big Oil is culpable. And let’s let a jury in Portland decide.

Roger Worthington owns Worthy Brewing in Bend and Indie Hops in Portland.