Can We Please Have a Serious Talk About These Wildfires?
So many Americans are suffering from severe air pollution every year — so what are we going to do about it?
My head is splitting. My stomach hurts. I can barely breathe. I’m not sick. It’s just August in the Pacific Northwest.
There are wildfires surrounding me. The smoke rolled in this afternoon, and in seconds, the sky went from slightly hazy to so thick with smoke, I could barely see the end of my street. It only took three hours for the AQI to go from 65 to 286.
If you’ve never been in the red zone — or higher, for that matter — of the AQI spectrum, trust me when I say you wouldn’t want to. It makes your lungs, throat, and nose burn. The smell is overwhelmingly acrid. It might give you a stomachache. A headache. Both.
And there’s something about it that makes you feel like you’re on the edge of panic. I suspect it’s a very primal reaction. When the sky darkens in a smoky haze and the air pollution is so bad you can barely breathe, survival mode kicks in. Our instincts are probably screaming at us to run — what madness is this to stay put? There’s no way the most ancient part of us isn’t in full-on fight or flight mode during fire season.
