“When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.”
Charles A. Dana
Man bites dog
News of smoky haze in the West would (sadly) not be all that surprising, but wildfire smoke in the Eastern US is “man bites dog”.
Photos and stories from this week’s smoke event are all over the news and social media. The smoke spanned from the Great Lakes region across much of the East, causing air quality alerts for approximately 100 million Americans. Further, on June 7, New York City had the worst air quality of any major city in the world. In addition to the health risks, it has disrupted daily life for millions.
Wildfires in the West, hurricanes in the Gulf and Southeast, and tornadoes in the Great Plains are all happening more often as the climate warms. As a result, we have become numb to these stories. But this week’s weather news caught our attention because it’s a change-up.
The climate change connection
What does this have to do with climate change? The smoke is coming from wildfires in Quebec, which were triggered by unseasonably dry, warm weather. The situation in Canada is tragic. More than 400 wildfires are burning around the country, over 200 of which are out of control. What’s more, over 20,000 Canadians are displaced from their homes.
While it is too soon to quantify how much climate change contributed to these particular fires, we do know that the size and intensity of wildfires are on the rise as the Earth warms. For instance, a recent study attributed over one-third of forest fires in the Western US and Canada since 1986 to the emissions of the world’s major carbon producers.
A few things this situation underscores:
- Everyone will be impacted by climate change
- We will be affected in unexpected ways
- We are all in this together, and will only be able to solve it together
What can we do?
This week’s smoke reminds us we can’t afford to become complacent about our warming planet like frogs in a pot of water, getting used to the heat as it slowly comes to a boil. Instead, there are lots of things we can do to be part of the solution. A massive shift toward renewable energy is underway, we just need to give it an extra push.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.