The Statue of Liberty and the skyscrapers of Manhattan shrouded in an orange and brown fog: forest fires in Quebec have darkened the famous "skyline" of New York since Wednesday, June 7 and make the air very difficult to breathe for its 8.5 million inhabitants.
Since the beginning of the week, city and state authorities have multiplied alert messages and begun distributing masks. According to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the air quality index went from "harmful to very harmful" on Wednesday and all outdoor school and extracurricular activities were suspended or limited "to what is strictly necessary."
According to the IQAir.com website, which monitors pollution levels around the world, the index for New York reaches "158", with a concentration of PM2.5 micro-particles at a level 14 times higher than World Health Organization standards. The situation is expected to remain worrying on Thursday, before an improvement expected on Friday.
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Visibility was so difficult that the US Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) slowed down air travel and even grounded some planes in the area.
Due to hundreds of uncontrolled wildfires across Canada, New York City looks like a post-apocalyptic hellscape.
If you want a prelude of what the world is going to look like if we do not address man-made climate change — this is it. #ActOnClimate pic.twitter.com/cimHQkDwkZ
— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) June 7, 2023
In addition to New York, these alerts concern most of the northeastern United States, from Chicago in the north to Atlanta in the south.
The Lincoln Memorial is surrounded by a wave of fog due to forest fires in Canada, June 7, 2023. © Andrew Caballero Reynold, AFP
More than 20,000 Canadians evacuated
Across the border in Canada, more than 20,000 Canadians are currently being evacuated across the country, more than half of them in Quebec where the government is preparing to evacuate an additional 4,000.
After the provinces of Alberta (west) and Nova Scotia (east), it is the turn of Quebec to be hit by fires "never seen": nearly 140 fires are currently active, including nearly a hundred deemed out of control, according to the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire (Sopfeu). And no heavy rain is expected until Monday night.
Canada is on track to face its worst-ever year of wildfire destruction. Blazes are burning in nearly all Canadian provinces and territories, and federal government officials said their modeling shows increased wildfire risk in most of Canada through August https://t.co/QU7KK6eXkm pic.twitter.com/QF5AAOCb3H
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 6, 2023
Canada as a whole is experiencing an unprecedented year: approximately 2,300 forest fires have been recorded and approximately 3.8 million hectares have been burned, well above the average of recent decades.
Canada's geographic location is warming faster than the rest of the world and has been facing extreme weather events in recent years that are increasing in intensity and frequency as a result of climate change.
With AFP
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