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Recently a colleague told me he was very afraid of everything going wrong in our country. He said he was so upset that he needed to take time off from work.

SCOTUS. Reversals. Denial. Insurrections. Some of us are justifiably afraid, while others are downright angry.

As it turns out, it’s good to be angry. According to clinical psychologists, there’s much good that can come of anger. For starters, anger has a critical role to play in any relationship. According to Scott Wilson, a professor of psychology at Columbia University, “The feedback anger can deliver is very important in social relationships and actually can make them healthier — as long as the anger is not too intense.”

There’s also evidence from Sciencedaily.org that anger, when controlled, can also make you more rational. Scientists studying college students to determine how anger impacts decision making discovered that anger made participants more, rather than less, rational and analytical in their reactions.

Given that fear and anger are both powerful and adjacent, perhaps my colleague, and by extension the rest of us, can find a way to pivot our fear into a “constructive anger.”

I am definitely feeling it. I’ve been angry, too, and for a while now. Every year around August, most outdoor activities in the Pacific Northwest are hamstrung in part by dystopian wildfire smoke, while winter coastal communities and beaches face greater instances of flooding. Friends who study forest mortality or aquatic species populations cite the losing battle they fight every day against climate change. The ignoring of science or curtailing of oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency are great reasons to be angry.

And it is precisely because of this “constructive anger” that my colleagues and I have created this issue focused on climate change. This is the means by which we can have more rational and analytical dialogue on the topic. And, as with much that happens in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, there is actually much to be hopeful for.

As it turns out, Seattle might be the very place where the keys to many of these problems are unlocked. As several stories in this issue illustrate, environmental stewardship is part of our ethos and culture. From public policy to private enterprise to the individual actions most of us take on a daily basis, we’re striving to ensure a healthy and vibrant planet for future generations.

And to underscore this visually, Creative Director at Large Matt Berman has elicited the help of master illustrator Ben Wiseman to design this month’s striking cover. I have been a longtime fan of Ben’s work ever since he started to design the covers of esteemed publications such as “Time,” “Variety,” and “New York Magazine.”

Ben has asserted that Seattle is a literal keyhole through which solutions can be unlocked. We hope this can help elevate the increasingly constructive dialogue in our community, and hope you love how this summer issue came together as much as we do.