Oh, Canada! Migrating smoke adds new dimension to Northeast’s climate change battle | Opinion

Manhattan’s hazy brown skyline this past week looked eerily similar to that in Sacramento during a bad August, when too much of the Sierra is on fire.

The ghastly smoke that recently plagued much of the Northeast started in eastern Canada. California’s mild spring is in stark contrast to a hot and dry pattern in Canada that’s the root cause of an estimated 400 fires now burning. A full third of them are in Quebec.

The East Coast has endured plenty of other symptoms of climate change: Severe hurricane seasons have raised anxieties in the late summers, and in October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy surged into Manhattan, flooding the One World Trade Center basement with an estimated 200 million gallons of water.

Eleven years ago, it might have been easier for some to dismiss the influence of climate change. But there’s nothing like a June sky full of soot to bring that message home.

This is the worst wildfire summer in the history of Quebec. And it’s only the second week of June.

With each natural disaster comes an equal and opposite political reaction.

“We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change,” tweeted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

New York Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY), on the other hand, said that this is “not the moment to start lecturing people” about climate change.

Molinaro is absolutely right, in a way. That moment has long passed.

This is a moment of public safety and public health for two countries. Acreage consumed by wildfire in Canada so far is 10 times more than last year.

Canada’s fire situation is so bad that even firefighters from California are heading to the country. While fires in Quebec and Ontario are choking up the eastern skies, lands farther to the west in Alberta are burning at record levels, nearly 2.5 million acres so far this year. By comparison, about 4.3 million acres burned in California’s worst fire year to date, 2020.

The moments for scholarly lectures about the potential dangers of climate change came and went years ago. Some states, like California, have stepped up to the challenge with concrete climate goals.

When the national monuments are under a pall of smoke in June, that smoke is a mere reminder of our climate reality. The globe is losing the battle against greenhouse gas emissions.

It is a reminder that change must happen in steps big and small: from a single commuter changing to a healthier pattern to societies the size of California converting to renewable energy sources as quickly as possible.

Now, 90 million Americans not accustomed to the inferno the West has endured can experience with all their senses what the future will bring if we don’t act as a nation.

This story was originally published June 9, 2023 at 12:38 PM.