SerpApi.Org
As smoke from Canadian wildfires descends on the Midwest and Northeast United States, visions of climate change catastrophe dance in activists’ heads. Reinforced with a dreaded “heat dome,” denizens of disaster may have found a new home from which to pester neighbors about the end of the world as we know it.
The summertime combination of warm and occasionally smoky air is not as unusual as some residents may think. The “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” was a common mantra of yesteryear. Even the “Gay Nineties” — that’s the happy 1890s — experienced some of the hottest days on record with only rudimentary ways of relief (hand fans and cold water, for example).
Official climatological records began in the U.S. in the mid-1800s, so the statistics are limited in duration. The data that are available reveal fluctuating heat and pollution levels over the past dozens of decades.
The 1930s may be the worst on record, with not only high temperatures but the Dust Bowl years as well. Yet arguments that we are currently experiencing the vilest conditions often have been based on environmental measurements starting only in the 1950s, which conveniently exclude a dire past.
Modern societies have revised farming practices to avoid a Dust-Bowl repeat and learned to curtail serious industrial emissions and manage air pollution episodes. In fact, in the U.S., the concentration of nearly all major pollutants has declined dramatically since the enactment of the Clean Air Act in 1970.
But it seems that wilderness care is too back-burner and too hands-offs-Gaia to warrant relief for contemporary life.
Unfortunately, back-burner issues have a way of inflaming attention regardless of ecological sensitivity. And forest-fire smoke can billow when proper forest maintenance is lacking, regardless of a warming climate.
With more than 100 Canadian fires blazing out of control, the weather directs the spread and concentration of wildfire smoke.
The general airflow across the U.S. is from west to east. When high pressure settles into an area, air tends to slow, allowing air pollution to increase. If typical west-to-east winds shift to come from more northerly directions, contaminants from northerly neighbors can concentrate in southerly neighborhoods.
High-pressure area weather is characterized by light winds, little to no precipitation, and clear night skies. The clear night skies frequently lead to the development of overnight stagnant air.
The combination of low wind speeds, unlikely rain, and a generally sluggish atmosphere is prime for the buildup and persistence of dirty air. And these conditions materialized this past week.
So, how much of the recent event is attributable to human-produced climate change?
Urbanization has generated a “heat-island effect” in cities compared with surrounding rural environs. This confirmed effect — where cities can be several degrees warmer than adjacent countrysides — is spatially limited. Manufacturing, power-plant, and vehicular emissions contribute chemicals to the air, which interact with the natural atmospheric constituents. Man-made and natural “greenhouse gases,” such as carbon dioxide, both boost global warming and global greening (by increasing vegetation).
CANADIAN WILDFIRE SMOKE SMOTHERS US: PHOTOS
Overall, however, as far as climate control goes, it is water in all its forms — as solid ice, snow, and glaciers; liquid rain and oceans; and invisible vapor — and water’s conversions from each physical state, which regulates climate long term.
As the U.S. endures the summer heat and temporary, transported unhealthy air, it is helpful to know that sensible precautions can be taken, such as staying indoors while enjoying modern-day air conditioning (including air purifiers). We can ride out the unpleasant days of summer being grateful for contemporary conveniences not available to our ancestors who suffered the same fate.
Anthony J. Sadar is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist and an adjunct associate professor of science at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Mr. Sadar is also coauthor of Environmental Risk Communication: Principles and Practices for Industry (CRC Press).
