NYC’s yellow sky reinforces the idea of a new state of mind.
Today’s acrid orange haze in the eastern United States and Canada conjures up the nightmare of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” an iconic painting with a surreal and fiery sky.
But we do know why the sky today is a “code-red” and an eerie orange: it is raging wildfire smoke from Canada, with plenty of toxic particulates, smothering our cities, and harming the health of our communities. It is a humdinger of air pollution events. It might not make the news in Mumbai, but the Air Quality Index (AQI) readings are off the charts, with 205 in Philadelphia, New York City, Jersey City, New Jersey, and New Haven, all with “unhealthy” AQIs ranging from 155 to 171 this morning.
This seemingly apocalyptic event, of course, has historical precedents, arising from related causes: the savage and tragic wildfires of recent years in the western US; the periodic volcanic eruptions (including, of course, the famous Krakatau of 1883); and the Great Smog of London that blanketed the city in 1952, smothering the city and wreaking havoc, killing thousands – these all had common roots:
BURNING. Not quite fire and brimstone, but rather the burning of materials (usually hydrocarbons) and associated combustion by-products which generate KILLER SMOKE. Old-fashioned environmental pollution, natural and unnatural that we can see, smell and feel, burning in our lungs and generating fear in our hearts.
I can not imagine the contortions, the volumes, and the pitches of the Munchian Screams that will result from the silent killer effects of global heating.
For today’s problem, I will try to find the filter for my air purifier. At least there is a solution for those fortunate enough (like me) not to have to go outdoors today.
For tomorrow’s problem, I am oh so much less sure. That is and will be a much larger, parallel, not regionally specific, and planetary crisis, arising and building also from:
BURNING. This time however, it is smokeless and invisible, also a by-product of combustion, and likely much more deadly: accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, in large the byproduct of burning, of unabated combustion of hydrocarbons. With it, water vapor and other CO2Es will come inevitable, rising, and unbearable heat.
I can not imagine the contortions, the volumes, and the pitches of the Munchian Screams that will result from the silent killer effects of global heating. But every sinew in my gut wrenches and signals that these impacts will be far more universal, fantastic, and devastating.
Last night I dreamt that the Canadian tar sands caught fire, a fire that burned forever. I turned on the AC, mere temporary relief. I feel like the proverbial frog, slowly heating up in that big pot of water, incapable of the action of jumping. Do I need a vacation? From what? To where?
I sense there are ineffable connections between these fires, this smoke, our climate, and our future. Or perhaps it is effable as in: F… F… F…
In the meantime: take care of your family and neighbors.
Shout out Frieze. https://lnkd.in/e8AnH5ag
Shout out History.com https://lnkd.in/ebYZPR7j
Shout out Revkin. https://lnkd.in/ecpPe5BE
Featured photo credit: Alfredo D’Uva
