The Air Quality Index in my town is currently 260 (very unhealthy) due to a surge in wildfires in western Canada and the northwest US. There are additional smaller fires not shown on this map at this zoom level.

From the interactive map it looks like the worst air in the world right now.

  • Sacha@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Climate deniers think all the forest fires are some government conspiracy because a bunch of fires starting all at the same time is super sus. Even though it happens all the time after a big heatwave / drought and pine forests are made to burn. Sometimes these trees will just… not spontaneously combust exactly, but pretty much do. Pine forests are built to burn every 2 years or so, it’s one of the ways they reproduce - pines are genetically predisposed to catching fire easily and their sap is very very flammable. These forests burn hot and quickly but a fast fire isn’t a very destructive fire. These trees often are not burnt to the ground. However, we are so effective at putting fires out so this 2 year burn off isn’t happening. So, years of underbrush, etc is building up that otherwise wouldn’t be. This makes what is supposed to be a fast burn fire, into a slow burn one. What would be a natural fireline because there is a large gap between some trees, isn’t one because all the underbrush connects them.

    So it’s not just because of climate change, but we are responsible either way. There aren’t any easy answers for this one because there are houses scattered all over the places. But there is no helping these Trump worshipping conspiracy theorists and we need to consider them a lost cause. Nothing will shake their faith in their Orange God so we must bolster against them and move on without them.