Greetings, I hope you are well.
When I woke up this morning and slid open the blinds, the view out of our bedroom was staggering. A haze, thick with a slightly pale orange tint and lofting in the air, accompanied by the present smell of smoke. Just as the local news outlets had accurately reported in the days leading up to this morning, Wisconsin was being choked in a dense cloud of smoke that had begun drifting south from our neighbors to the north, who are being ravaged by wildfires.
This has happened before, unfortunately, not too long ago, but for whatever reason, this round of secondhand smoke feels more alarming to me. According to the BBC, right now there are (at least) 857 active wildfires burning in Canada, with more wildfires happening in Minnesota (where the evacuations of backcountry paddlers and campers at Voyageurs National Park were underway earlier this week) and even on Michigan's remote Isle Royale National Park. Many of these wildfires don't appear to be contained yet, and I wouldn't be surprised if this drifting of cinder-scented smoke continues for quite some time, triggering hazardous air quality warnings across swaths of the United States.
It's heartbreaking. I certainly feel privileged writing this blog post from the comfort of my dining table in my air-conditioned home, next to my mug of hot coffee, while so many men and women bravely risk their lives to desperately fight these wildfires. Throw in the fact that there's ongoing debate and discussion about how to lessen the risk of future wildfires and a presidential administration that's staunchly anti-science, anti-global warming, and has made severe budget cuts to critical organizations within the Department of the Interior like the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the BLM...hindering their abilities and efforts to combat these blazes. There's never-ending finger-pointing at who and what is responsible for wildfires, and less of a prioritization on determining the right measures to prevent them. It's a mess of denial, a foolish, dangerous denial, and it frustrates the shit out of me.
But here I am, feverishly typing away on my laptop after refilling my mug of Costco coffee, pensively looking out the window while parts of the world burn. I wish I could snap my fingers and these wildfires would be no more. Climate change is real, folks. Yes, I'm not a scientist or biologist or expert on the matter, I'm an automotive industry analyst, therefore much of this rant and rationale is opinion-based, which is fine...but I spend enough time in the outdoors and pay attention to know that yes, the weather and atmospheric conditions are a hell of a lot different than they once were years ago. Winters are shorter and warmer, catastrophic flooding and downpours happen more frequently, and spurs of heat indexes that surge past 100 degrees for many days at a time are becoming routine during the summer.
So how do I fix it? What can I, Robby, do? Well I don't know, the answer isn't that simple, and that scares the shit out of me, too. My wife and I do our part, going down the checklist of things we can do to lower our carbon footprint and better the health of the earth like buying an EV, installing a rain barrel, planting a pollinator garden, recycling, shopping locally and used, etc. But there's more I can do, more I need to do, and that I urgently need to figure out.
Whenever the air is thick, I begin to reconsider a lot of my behaviors and habits.
Because even the smallest changes matter.
Be safe out there.
Cheers,
Robby