Canada Wildfires Place Tens of Millions Under Air Quality Alerts
As hundreds of wildfires rip across Canada, tens of millions of people in North America were met with ensuing smoke, with both Toronto and New York briefly ranking among the metro areas with the worst air quality in the world between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Facts
- As hundreds of wildfires rip across Canada, tens of millions of people in North America were met with ensuing smoke, with both Toronto and New York briefly ranking among the metro areas with the worst air quality in the world between Tuesday and Wednesday.1
- As of Tuesday afternoon, 228 of Canada’s 415 active fires were deemed out of control. Over 2.2K fires have burned more than 3.3M hectares (~8.1M acres) of land. This is an increase in the 10-year average of roughly 1.6K fires burning around 254K hectares.2
- While 26K Canadians remain evacuated from their homes, the neighboring US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state officials in New England have predicted smoke will linger for a few days.3
- In total, around 128M Americans have been placed under air quality warnings, as of Wednesday evening, with poor air quality reported across 18 states.4
- With the conditions expected to continue into the weekend, officials have advised millions of people to don masks as New York is set to distribute 1M N95 masks to residents starting on Thursday.5
- Wildfire smoke particles are themselves too small to see, but they become visible when levels are high. Air particles can cause health problems ranging from "eye and respiratory tract irritation" to "reduced lung function, bronchitis, exacerbation of asthma and heart failure."6
Sources: 1The Star, 2Guardian, 3NPR Online News (a), 4NBC, 5NPR Online News (b), and 6FOX News.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by Al Jazeera. If millions of acres of land burning to the ground and thousands of people being forced to evacuate weren't evidence enough, maybe the fact that millions of people across North America are inhaling smoke right now will show how dangerous climate change is. As the warming atmosphere dries out our land and ignites more and more wildfires, air quality will only deteriorate and people's physical health will follow suit.
- Narrative B, as provided by NBC. While climate change is likely a factor in these wildfires, the best way to deal with this is to design preventative measures to shrink their scope as much as possible. One potential solution is to turn dead trees into biomass energy before they ignite. Governments should invest in turning these trees into wood chips, which, besides preventing future fires, can also be burned and used to produce heat and electricity.
