Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, November 10, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Umatilla River a gem with more potential As the city of Pendleton grew in they were able to rally enough the late 1800s, the Umatilla River support to build the path. running through its core was a That kind of creativity and liability. dedication is such an important 6SULQJÀRRGVHYHU\\HDU part of Pendleton’s DNA. It’s a city threatened to wipe out downtown, where a good idea has a chance to so the levee was built. As a side ÀRXULVKEHFDXVHSHRSOHDUHZLOOLQJ effect, the city quite literally turned to put in the effort to make it happen. its back on the river — houses and There is so much more that can businesses were constructed facing be done with the river, and we’re away and it hopeful to was used as see a new a dump for generation of sewage and leaders step other refuse. up and take Thanks to the challenge. a small group Not only could of dedicated the parkway visionaries, the be extended in community any number of began directions to embracing the show off more river in the of the area’s latter half of the natural beauty, 20th century amenities like and today it is boat ramps one of the truly and other river unique and access points valuable assets would give Pendleton recreationalists boasts. a reason to A big part visit and even of that is the move here. two-and-a-half Remember, mile River a river running Parkway, through town Staff photo by E.J. Harris which gives A man rides his bicycle down the River is not a luxury residents and most places Parkway on Wednesday in Pendleton. visitors alike have. Name access to the another city natural beauty of the river. It took where Main Street literally crosses the tenacity of people like Amy a stream full of salmon, and which Bedford, Marie Hall, Bud Moore is walkable almost every day of and Hazel Hubel in the early days the year. It’s a dream for anglers, to get the project off the ground. birdwatchers and joggers alike. They saw the potential, and thanks What was once a feared adversary to their willingness to go against the is now a prized resource. We’re stream and petition property owners lucky to have it, and people who will and city leaders to support the cause, make the most of it. Salmon, temps on a collision course came to an overall conclusion that You don’t have to be an expert many species are harmed by higher on Northwest salmon to know they temps. have been on a collision course For example, “salmonid stocks with rising temperatures. There that make long-distance migrations have been news items in recent to inland spawning grounds during years — including this summer — the summer and fall may be more about returning salmon sweltering and dying in the Klamath Basin and vulnerable to increased water temperatures and loss of cold-water the Willamette River. refuges.” It stands to reason that adult What constitutes cold water ¿VKUHWXUQLQJIURP\HDUVLQFROG differs from species ocean waters will to species, but struggle when the water — and hence It is vital to find species of vital interest in the their own body and protect Columbia River temperature — is require colder water drastically higher places along than they often than what they are the salmon now encounter. used to. Like most For instance, fall/ organisms, salmon migration route summer Chinook are adaptable to where they can prefer a spawning a point and there of 41 to is much variation be refreshed by temperature between different 56 degrees; spring colder water. species and runs. Chinook 40 to 64; But every creature coho and steelhead has its limits, and 50 to 55; sockeye the 21st century’s climate has 36 to 46. started testing the outer boundaries In its latest work, NOAA of adaptability for many Columbia )LVKHULHVLGHQWL¿HVGHJUHHV Basin salmon. as the level at which some major There was news last Tuesday of species become weak and diseased an agreement by NOAA Fisheries or died. They may have trouble WRZRUNZLWK2UHJRQRI¿FLDOVRYHU spawning or thriving well before the next three years to begin dealing that point. with rising water temperatures by ,WLVYLWDOWR¿QGDQGSURWHFW locating, protecting and restoring places along the salmon migration cold-water habitat in the Columbia route where they can be refreshed and Willamette. by colder water. This will likely This is overdue. LPSDFWVRPHDFFXVWRPHG¿VKLQJ As early as 2001, the U.S. places and will further complicate Environmental Protection Agency ¿VKLQJVHDVRQV7KH&ROXPELD¶V treaty tribes certainly must share in issued a major report about the this effort. impacts of rising water temps on 6DOPRQDQGWKH¿VKHUPHQZKR VDOPRQDQGRWKHU¿VKVSHFLHV (www.tinyurl.com/FishTempStudy) rely on them need careful nurturing as this warm century progresses. It found a complex situation, but Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS Despair, American style A couple of weeks ago President of wedlock, yet Sweden’s middle-aged Barack Obama mocked mortality rate is only half of white Republicans who are “down America’s. on America,” and reinforced his You see a somewhat similar pattern message by doing a pretty good across regions within the United Grumpy Cat impression. He had States. Life expectancy is high and a point: With job growth at rates rising in the Northeast and California, not seen since the 1990s, with the ZKHUHVRFLDOEHQH¿WVDUHKLJKHVWDQG percentage of Americans covered by traditional values weakest. Meanwhile, Paul health insurance hitting record highs, Krugman low and stagnant or declining life the doom-and-gloom predictions of expectancy is concentrated in the Bible Comment his political enemies look ever more at Belt. odds with reality. What about a materialist Yet there is a darkness spreading over part explanation? Is rising mortality a consequence of our society. And we don’t really understand of rising inequality and the hollowing out of why. the middle class? There has been a lot of comment, and Well, it’s not that simple. We are, after all, rightly so, over a new paper by the economists talking about the consequences of behavior, Angus Deaton (who just won a Nobel) and and culture clearly matters a great deal. Most Anne Case, showing that mortality among notably, Hispanic Americans are considerably middle-aged white Americans has been rising poorer than whites but have much lower since 1999. This deterioration took place while mortality. It’s probably worth noting, in death rates were falling steadily both in other this context, that international comparisons countries and among other groups in our own FRQVLVWHQWO\¿QGWKDW/DWLQ$PHULFDQVKDYH nation. higher subjective well-being than you would Even more striking are the proximate expect, given their incomes. causes of rising mortality. Basically, white So what is going on? In a recent interview Americans are, in increasing numbers, killing Deaton suggested that middle-aged whites themselves, directly or indirectly. Suicide have “lost the narrative of their lives.” That is way up, and so are deaths from drug is, their economic setbacks have hit hard poisoning and the chronic liver disease that because they expected better. Or to put it a bit excessive drinking can cause. We’ve seen this differently, we’re looking at people who were kind of thing in other times and places — for raised to believe in the American Dream, and example, in the plunging life expectancy that are coping badly with its failure to come true. DIÀLFWHG5XVVLDDIWHUWKHIDOORI&RPPXQLVP That sounds like a plausible hypothesis But it’s a shock to see it, even in an attenuated to me, but the truth is that we don’t really form, in America. know why despair appears to be spreading