2023-06-08 15:21:42
New York’s George Washington Bridge in the smog – Wildfires in Canada caused the city’s worst air pollution since the 1960s.
Photo: dpa/Seth Little
Images of California’s devastating 2020 and 2021 wildfire seasons have shaped perceptions of the climate crisis in the United States and elsewhere. But after the west coast was shrouded in smog in recent years, the east coast of the USA and Canada is now affected: New York is trapped under a thick layer of haze that colors the sunlight a menacing orange.
The reason for this is the massive forest fires in the Canadian province of Quebec, where more than 160 fires are burning, as reported by the television station PBS. The capacities of the fire brigade are only sufficient to fight about 30 fires at the same time. Normally, rescue workers from other provinces would rush to help, but they are also struggling with a tense situation. “We are in contact with the prime ministers of other provinces, but they have their hands full themselves,” Quebec Premier François Legault said at a press conference on Monday. The village of Clova had to be abandoned because fire-fighting planes were no longer able to counteract the intensity of the fire. “Unfortunately, we’ve lost control,” Legault said. “We had no choice but to let Clova burn.” Two other villages near the border with neighboring Ontario, St-Lambert and Normétal, were evacuated as a precaution, according to PBS, as was the town of Chibougamau, which has a population of over 7,000.
More than 320 fires were already raging across Canada last Friday – too many to fight effectively. More than 173,000 hectares of forest were on fire in Quebec this year – compared to an average of only about 250 hectares during a typical fire season over the past decade. “The footage we’ve seen so far this season is among the worst we’ve seen in Canada,” Disaster Relief Secretary Bill Blair told PBS. A particularly severe fire season is currently being forecast, Blair said.
While Quebec’s metropolis Montreal has so far been largely spared from heavy smog, the most densely populated affected areas are south of the national border, on the east coast of the USA. According to the state-run website AirNow.gov, which aggregates air pollution data, a swath of air highly polluted with particulate matter was moving south from the Quebec fires Thursday morning. The worst-hit regions were in the US states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. The metropolitan areas of New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC are highly exposed. There, the authorities’ air pollution index is sometimes at values that signal a “very unhealthy” or “dangerous” level, as the television station CNN reported.
New York Mayor Eric Adams announced at a news conference on Wednesday that the city’s air quality is the worst it has been since the 1960s. According to Adams, New York can only hope for relief on Friday morning. In Montgomery County, Maryland, students were no longer allowed outside during breaks, and numerous sporting events across the region were cancelled. In Philadelphia, authorities have declared a “red alert” for serious health problems for the elderly, children, pregnant women, and those with heart and lung conditions, local health official James Garrow told CNN. “We ask people to stay indoors. If you do need to go outside, please wear a mask and go back inside as often as necessary,” Garrow said. Delaware also declared the highest alert level due to poor air quality.
Doctors warned of the long-term health effects of smog. “Healthy people might tolerate this level of pollution for a day or two without experiencing too many problems, but the levels are so high that even they are at risk,” immunologist and asthma expert Purvi Parikh told CNN.
According to experts, there is a clear connection between the climate crisis and this year’s devastating wildfire season in Canada. “We are seeing a very strong signal due to climate change. We’re seeing a larger area burning and the fires are getting heavier,” Robert Scheller, a professor of forestry at North Carolina State University, told the BBC. According to a study published in May by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which campaigns for military disarmament and environmental protection, more than a third of the forest area destroyed by fire in North America can now be attributed solely to the climate emissions of the 88 corporations in the world with the highest Reduce climate emissions.
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