Climate Change and the Canada Wildfires: Why it’s Happening Now and How It’s Going To Happen in the Future, and How We’re Changing It
“This is something that I think even for people that aren’t involved in the situation, because we expect that this will happen,” said Jeff Schlegelmilch, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.
The intensifying climate crisis is visible in the recent fires in Canada and New Jersey as well as increases in severity in our own backyard.
Climate change has made fire seasons longer and the blazes are burning more acres due to hot and dry conditions.
According to the National Weather Service, unhealthy air quality levels are expected to persist in the coastal Northeast on Thursday, before the smoke moves into the interior Northeast and the Ohio Valley on Friday.
Some 100 million people are under an air quality alert because of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. More than 400 fires are burning in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario, and half are uncontrolled. The air quality in New York was one of the worst in the world. Philadelphia has also issued a code red alert telling people to stay indoors and the smoke may continue inundating the region for several more days to come. In the United States, supercharged wildfires once seemed like a uniquely West Coast problem, like the 2018 Camp Fire which obliterated the California town of Paradise. A range of factors contributed to that massive blaze, including the region’s legacy of fire suppression, which allowed dead brush to pile up. Climate change means hotter temperatures dry that brush out, so it burns catastrophically. That is the problem in Canada at the moment. The number of fires has only increased slightly above average, but the size of the fires and intensity has increased significantly, says Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire.
The New York City Wildfires: How big can they be? Education, recreation and public education cancelled by public schools in Washington, D.C.
New York City’s public school system, the largest in the US, canceled all outdoor activities on Wednesday. Washington, D.C., public schools did the same, scrapping recess, outdoor physical education classes and other events outside.
“I don’t think the concentrations will rise too much if more fires start burning,” DeCarlo said. “We’re going to see a change in the weather pattern over the next couple of days, which will push the smoke away from where we are.”
Peter DeCarlo says that weather conditions in the U.S. are making it possible for wildfire smoke to spread over the region.
Officials in some areas were urging people to stay inside as much as they can, avoid travel if possible and refrain from any exercise or strenuous activity.
Public health experts warned that poor air quality could be harmful to people with heart and lung disease, the elderly and young children.
Millions of people on the east coast and further inland woke up to a cloud of hazy air Wednesday morning, after smoke from rampant wildfires in Canada floated across the border and blanketed large swaths of the US.
Wildfire smoke is a complex amalgamation of materials, including burnt plant material and—if buildings go up in flames—human-made stuff like plastic. What makes smoke visible are its toxic particulates—dubbed PM 2.5 and 10, meaning particles smaller than 2.5 and 10 microns. There is a lot of nasty stuff in there too, like carbon gasses and even the cancer-causing drug fentanyl. As the smoke travels through the atmosphere, it can actually form new chemical hazards over time, like ozone, which exacerbates asthma. Rebecca Hornbrook, an atmospheric chemist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who has flown planes through wildfire smoke to study its components, says that the biggest health impacts are definitely from the particulate matter. There are many things that are not on the EPA list of dangerous chemicals.
It can be dangerous to pregnant women and vulnerable people with respiratory issues to be in the smoke as it can cause immediate health effects. Shahir Masri, an Air Pollution scientist at the University of California, Irvine, says single exposure events can be devastating to people with preexisting conditions.
What are the best ways to protect yourself and your family from a wildfire? A study of some common misconceptions in the air quality, with applications to smoke, pollution, and wildfires
In case your family needs to evacuate, experts advise owners to keep a go bag with food, water, medicine, first aid supplies and a leash or harness for their pet.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, pets should stay indoors as much as possible when the air quality is low and take only brief bathroom breaks outside. Birds shouldn’t go outside at all when it’s smoky.
University of Denver professor Alex Huffman told Colorado Public Radio that people can also monitor the air quality around them, use a high-quality air filter in their homes and seal up openings in their doors and windows.
An air quality scale with a range of zero to 500, and a lower number indicating better air quality and any over 300 being hazardous is used to measure air quality.
Smaller particulate matter is worse since it can get into the deeper parts of your lungs and blood.
Tiny solid and liquid droplets that can be harmful to human health hang in the air. Wildfires are a major source of particulate matter in the air.
You can get a breakdown of some of the more technical wildfire-related terms, as well as learn what experts think are the best ways to protect yourself and your family.