Smoke and Climate Change

 A recent Washington Post article says:

Opinion: Amid Canadian wildfire haze, a clear message about climate change emerges

"... Once again, nature is sending us an unambiguous message: We had better get serious about mitigating the consequences of human-induced climate change. And we are, as a species, a bunch of idiots unless we make switching from fossil fuels to clean-energy sources our top global priority.

The smoke blanketing the densely populated Northeast corridor is coming from wildfires in Canada. In the province of Quebec alone, more than 150 fires were active this week. Conditions happen to be such that the smoke from those blazes is being blown here.

"...The warm and dry conditions of fire season in Canada arrive earlier than they used to — because of climate change — and last longer. The jet stream is weaker than in the past — because of climate change — which allows hotter and drier air to stall in place, creating wildfire-friendly heat domes. All 10 Canadian provinces are abnormally dry or experiencing full-on drought — because of climate change — which means there is plenty of fuel ready to be ignited by the inevitable spark. Officials in Ottawa already predict that this year’s fire season will likely go down as the worst in recorded history.

I’m talking about events in Canada. Yet more than 100 million of us here in the United States are living under air-quality advisories. This is part of nature’s message: Climate change does not recognize, let alone respect, national boundaries.

"...It is in the self-interest of the United States to send Canada whatever firefighting assistance Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial officials might need to help extinguish the fires. It is also in our self-interest to beef up our domestic wildfire-fighting capacity, to avoid a repeat of events from 2020, when fires in the Western states produced the same Martian-red skies in the San Francisco Bay Area that have been seen this week over Manhattan.

It is in our self-interest to mitigate the human suffering and the increased medical costs that we end up bearing when vulnerable Americans breathe the fine particles of soot that make up the wildfire smoke.

"...And our goal — our mission — must be to head off far worse punishments that make our children and grandchildren look back on weeks like this one as the good old days.

Thanks: Eugene Robinson (his name is at top) or maybe Megan McArdle who's name is at bottom. 

Thanks to a friend who reads the Washington Post daily. She forwarded this article to me....dated Thurs. June 8, 2023.

I think that all of us talking about climate change, what we know are facts, not just that it's incredible and causes many emotions...the conversations between us help so much to have awareness as well as intentions to act even as individuals, but eventually as groups. I'm going to keep posting about it, as well as talking with friends/relatives. As Greta Thunberg says, until we reach the critical mass of people demanding correct actions to mitigate the current circumstances. So when enough of us are talking, there's that movement towards change.