The sun setting over Peoria County turns a deep orange as it sinks through layers of smoke and soot generated by wildfires burning in over a dozen western states. The resulting rise in the Air Quality Index in central Illinois poses health problems for people with respiratory and cardiac issues. (PHOTO BY DAVID ZALAZNIK)
Smoke from wildfires burning across 13 western states is blanketing the rest of the country in smoke and soot. In Peoria, the Air Quality Index hit 122, considered unhealthy for sensitive people. The threshold for safe air is 100.
A foggy haze covers central Illinois. When the sun sets in the evening, it passes through a dense concentration of smoke hugging the horizon that turns the sun into a glowing orange orb.
New York City was also shrouded in haze from the wildfires and hit an AQI of 157, considered a risk for the general public.
Margaret Key, a federal air resource adviser, told Reuters, “Wildfire smoke exposure . . . increases susceptibility of respiratory infections including COVID, increases the severity of such infections and makes recovery more difficult.”
Symptoms of smoke and soot exposure from the wildfires can be felt in eyes, nose and lungs.
Fine microscopic particles in the smoke and soot can penetrate deep into lungs and aggravate chronic heart and lung diseases.
Health authorities recommend air purifiers with HEPA filters.
Scientists link these historic and deadly wildfires with climate change caused by consumption of fossil fuels.
However, since the Paris Climate Accord in 2015, the United States and other G20 countries have provided more than $3.3 trillion in subsidies for fossil fuels, according to a report by Bloomberg NEF and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The report calls these subsidies for coal, oil and gas “reckless.”
The G20 countries account for nearly 75% of global carbon emissions, according to an article in The Guardian.
The Bloomberg reports found the United States increased fossil fuel subsidies by 37%, exceeded only by Australia’s increase of 48%. Canada’s support rose by 40%. The United Kingdom’s subsidies fell by 18%.
The biggest subsidies are from China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India that together account for about half of all subsidies.
“There is evidence that (subsidies) disproportionately benefit wealthier consumers, rather than vulnerable groups, said Vicky Cumings, Bloomberg NEF and an author of the report.
She said, “This funding really encourages the potentially wasteful production and use of fossil fuels and can mean emission-intensive assets are funded today, thereby locking in their emissions for decades.”