I urge people to not overlook the trades. We can never look down on electricians, plumbers or mechanics. To the contrary, our society depends on those hard-working people who make daily life easier.

Beijing’s and Moscow’s lawlessness and collaborative belligerence threaten all sovereign nations in Europe and Asia. We still have time to respond with a war-deterring diplomatic stroke: extending NATO’s Article 5 to committed nations in the Pacific and East Asia who already field NATO-ready military forces.

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge remains on pace to match or eclipse the single season home-run mark set by Roger Maris in 1961.

Certainly, multibillion-dollar things can be done to insulate buildings and retrofit the urban infrastructure to absorb less heat. But trees cost so little, do not require new technology and look nice, too.

This is the most important story in the world because it is the world. None of the other things that gobble our attention — Donald Trump, abortion rights, gun violence — matter as much as the inarguable fact that this planet is rapidly growing inhospitable to human life. That grim truth has hit like a hammer in recent days. Now, perhaps, we get to hit back.

The word fascism describes not “mask mandates,” but strongman rule — think Putin, Kim or Castro — in which “Dear Leader” is unbound by such trivialities as the laws, the courts or the ballot. This is what Trump desires to have — and the political right aspires to give him. The rest of us would do well to understand this, given the mortal threat it poses.

President Biden’s hyperbole when it comes to end-of-the-world prophecies follows many similar predictions that failed to materialize.

The arguments for a more liberal immigration policy are solid. A robust and still growing body of economic research has repeatedly debunked the claim that immigrants take Americans’ jobs and cut their wages. It was bogus back in the time of the Braceros.

The U.S. is a wealthy, innovative and a continental nation where patterns of settlement have vastly changed over time and will continue to do so, regardless of the temperature trends. We will be able to adapt to, and mitigate any harmful effects from, climate change better than any other society in the world.