Quebec, hard hit by historic fires, is impatiently awaiting international reinforcements, while the smoke from some 400 Canadian blazes reaches the United States, where 100 million Americans breathe poor air.
This event is “another worrying sign of how the climate crisis is affecting our lives”White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
After the Canadian provinces of Alberta (west) and Nova Scotia (east), it is Quebec’s turn 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 significant rain is expected until Monday evening.
New York under an orange and brown fog
In New York, the Statue of Liberty and the skyscrapers of Manhattan were enveloped in an orange and brown fog, while the masks, vestiges of the Covid, reappeared in the streets.
Visibility was so difficult in the area that the United States Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) slowed air transport and even grounded some planes.
The US government has also called on its fellow citizens whose health is fragile to “take precautions” in the face of deteriorating air quality.
More than 100 million of them were affected on Wednesday by air quality alerts because of smoke caused by fires in Canada, the Environmental Protection Agency told AFP ( EPA).
These alerts concern most of the northeastern United States, from Chicago in the north to Atlanta in the south. The air quality in this area “is primarily impacted by Canadian fires, although other local pollution emissions and weather may also play a role”said the EPA.
The images are as disturbing as they are impressive.
🔴 Climate change
New York City plunged in smoke from Canada’s wildfires pic.twitter.com/tLDs3lFROQ
— Francois Beaudonnet 🌎 (@beaudonnet) June 7, 2023
2023-06-08 07:00:00
#impressive #images #pollution #York #generated #terrible #fires #Canada
