SMOKE GETS IN MY EYES

A few years ago I went through a period of reading YA Dystopian novels:  The Hunger Games series, the Divergent series.  I loved them.  Great characters, stories, settings.  Now, though, I almost feel like I am in the midst of one of those novels and it's not nearly so much fun.

For one thing, it's hard to breathe.  Not just because the current president and his minions continue to take my breath away with their slash and burn march to an authoritarian state, but because there is so much smoke in the air my eyes burn, my throat feels raw, and my chest feels a bit heavy.  I realize I'm taking shallow breaths, trying not to take in too much particulate matter with what life-giving oxygen is also available.

This is the second summer of weeks of low-hanging smoke, blotting out what should be the Northwest's best weather -- bright blue skies, sunshine, breathtaking (in a good way) views of mountains and water.  Summer is so precious here, I am feeling cheated from days I look forward to all the rest of the year.

Again this year the western United States and Canada seems to be on fire.  Forest fires are everywhere and the smoke drifts into this area from as far away as Siberia!  Why so bad?  The short answer is that summers are hotter and drier, making forests even more vulnerable to fire (due to careless humans or Mother Nature).

Climate change is REAL.  There is no "I believe in or don't believe in" climate change.  It's not a belief statement.  It's a fact.  We've been warned of the harmful effects of our love affair with fossil fuels for decades.  It's all escalating now and the effects are being visited upon us with more frequent and devastating forest fires, more frequent and devastating hurricanes, tornados, and torrential rainfalls and floods.  It's all escalating now with ice caps and glaciers melting at an alarming rate, causing sea levels to rise.  People talk about warmer winters, less snow.

People get confused about the difference between "weather" and "climate".  Short-term changes in the atmosphere is 'weather' and yes, it can be super cold in the winter, or there can be a big snowstorm and still we would be in the throes of global warming because long-term changes over time is "climate".  Scientific studies prove that over time, and rapidly escalating, the earth's climate is warming.  That's not good for the living things that are currently living.  I suppose there might be adaptation over time, for awhile, but not in our lifetimes, nor our grandchildren's.  I wonder if one day humans will be living a Waterworld or Mad Max life?

We are living this week under an "Air Quality Alert", with the pollution currently at a level in my community listed as:

169

Unhealthy

We are to limit outdoor exposure, to stay in with doors and windows closed.  My granddaughter's childcare/preschool is not allowing the kids to play outside -- on a midsummer's day.  That makes me very sad.  We will continue to be impacted as the air quality worsens, as it's predicted to do by tonight through Wednesday.  Some people in Eastern Washington, where Very Unhealthy and Hazardous air quality warnings are stretching into many days, are looking into home air filtration systems and respirator type masks.  Parents are getting desperate to find indoor activities for their housebound kids.

We are on an unstoppable train right now, but we can slow it down and maybe even reverse this trend if we, as a collective human family, have the will to do so.  It feels lately like we don't, at least in the US where the current president was elected on an "anti-regulation" promise and went on to choose Cabinet Secretaries who are happily dismantling their agencies, including Energy and the EPA, and who also exited the US from the Paris Climate Accords, which strives to address global warming concerns.  We stand alone at this point in being outside the Accords' world family.

In Washington state we have a chance to be national leaders on addressing climate impacts on the local level by passing I-1631 which will levy a fee on the most egregious corporate polluters.  The money would go not into the State's general fund, but into a designated fund overseen by a non-partisan citizen's group of environmentalists, health care providers, business leaders, faith groups, and communities of color coalitions.  Over 100 organizational endorsers are on board.  Hundreds of volunteers, including Hub and I, are door belling and reaching out via email and social media to Get Out The Vote.  The opponents are throwing millions of dollars at an "anti-1631 campaign" with advertising and attack ads.  Still, we remain hopeful.


So, as I sit writing inside on this 80-degree day, looking out at the smoke obscuring my usual lovely summer views, I have to wonder if there are any super fashionable respirator masks on Amazon.  I would like a purple one.

At least, that's the (smoke-obscured) view from here...©