Canada's Wildfires: A Warning About the Future

Most of the Republican Party and the MAGA base continues to reject the fact that climate change is real and  from the extremist majority on the Supreme Court which has hobbled the EPA to extremist Glenn Youngkin who has withdrawn Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the push is to pander to the fossil fuel industry and use double speak to ignore the evidence of climate change, especially rising sea levels and increased tidal flooding.   In this age of GOP climate change denial, the current air quality emergency impacting large potions of the USA due to wildfires in Canada is a much needed slap in the face and warning of what is to come as increased temperatures will see the East start experiencing fire season like those living in the West, some of who are finding dwindling options for insurance coverage as major insurers cease writing policies.  A column in The Atlantic looks at the current situation and what it bodes for the future, especially if America and other nations continue to ignore the coming calamity.  Here are highlights:

About 75 million people across the country are under air-quality alerts. Below is a brief guide to what comes next, and what this moment explains about our warming planet.

In much of the northern United States and parts of Canada, a look outside the window right now might paint a more vivid picture of the current reality than any news article can. Wildfire smoke from Canada is spreading south over many regions of the Midwest, Ohio Valley, the Northeast, and the mid-Atlantic. Midtown Manhattan has been orange. About 75 million people across the country are under air-quality alerts.

Let’s start with some context: Good air quality lands from 0 to 50 on the Air Quality Index (AQI), which measures the density of air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and particulates. Any air-quality level higher than 100 can cause health issues for people at risk, such as children, the elderly, and those with asthma or lung diseases; air-quality levels higher than 150 can cause problems for even healthy people. As of 4 p.m. EST today, the New York City metro area had reached an AQI of 413, falling within the “hazardous” category.

Wildfire smoke contains small particulate-matter pollutants; when these are inhaled, they can get into the lungs and may enter the bloodstream. For healthy people without underlying medical conditions, brief exposure will likely not cause more than temporary irritation, but such levels of exposure are concerning for vulnerable people and those with certain health issues—and prolonged exposure is concerning for all people.

So what can you do while waiting this out? Experts suggest that you stay inside as much as possible, and keep windows and doors closed. If you have a window air conditioner, check that the unit is recirculating air from indoors instead of pulling air from outside.

How long this level of air quality will last in the northeastern U.S. depends on wind direction. Today into tomorrow, an even worse round of wildfire smoke could move south out of Canada and hit Pennsylvania, New York State, and the mid-Atlantic. But starting on Friday, the winds are expected to change direction, which experts predict should keep new smoke from moving south from Canada.

The Washington Post’s weather editor, explained yesterday that though wildfires are somewhat normal across Canada and the western United States in the summer, “outbreaks as widespread and numerous as these are virtually unheard of in late May into June. The amount of smoke pouring into the Northeast is thus also exceptional.”

While wildfires can be sparked in many different ways, the rapidity with which they spread is proportional to how hot and dry the ambient environment is. There exists a strong link between the frequency and intensity of heat domes and human-caused climate change. A number of high-end heat domes have already fostered wildfire outbreaks across Canada this year, and more appear to be in the offing.

A wet winter and cool spring curbed wildfire potential in parts of the West, but experts anticipate that warmer, drier conditions in America’s northern tier will drive new fire risks this summer, particularly in the Great Lakes states.

And eventually, parts of the East Coast may catch up. As the climate reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis wrote in The Atlantic last year, “the Northeast is now primed for more frequent droughts that will harm agriculture, intermittently reduce drinking-water supplies, and increase wildfire risk. The East will not emerge unscathed from the infernos that are quickly becoming a hallmark of western summers.”