:focal(2495x1671.5:2505x1661.5):watermark(cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ipmgroup/BJHEN36IPZENPF43EEHTEVACCM.png,0,-0,0,100)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ipmgroup/UKMUAXXRLZAXZMQY274473DYI4.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "Toxic Smoke from Canadian Fires Chokes New York City: A Reminder of Global Warming’s Destructive Power")
At first glance, the image is almost like a postcard: majestic skyscrapers silhouetted against an orange sky, like a sumptuous sunset. On closer inspection, however, this sky is chalky in color. The passers-by who roam these streets especially, scarf on their nose or “anti-Covid” mask brought out in disaster from the drawers, do not really display a happy face. It is then rather The road, terrific and terrifying post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy, that comes to mind. For two days, the city of New York, epicenter of the world capitalist economy and symbol if there is one of the power of “modern” societies, has been bathed in a fog of smoke loaded with toxic particles. A level of pollution never reached to date in “Big Apple”, which forced the health authorities to close a certain number of public establishments, in particular schools, and to advise their fellow citizens to remain caulked in their homes. Everyboy inside…
At the origin of this problem, the immense and early forest fires in progress in Canada. Fires “unprecedented”, to use an already outdated expression, whose fumes were pushed by the winds towards the northeast of the neighboring United States. In addition to New Yorkers, more than 100 million people are thus exposed to literally unbreathable air. Do not look far for the cause of the phenomenon: “It’s global warming, stupid”…
Fires thus follow floods, which themselves follow increasingly disastrous droughts… The risk is great, however, of seeing this episode quickly fade from memory, becoming commonplace when such events, caused by climatic disturbances, are called to multiply and amplify. By weariness, denial or feeling of powerlessness. This is undoubtedly where the greatest danger lies. A loophole into which petromonarchies, oil companies, and all the “fossil-dependent” sectors that trail in their wake are engulfed today, in an attempt to weaken European environmental ambitions and to torpedo the already meager progress made in the framework of international climate negotiations, as the Dubai summit (Cop 28) looms. More than on activists “soup throwers” or highway blockers, it is on these actors that governments must put pressure commensurate with their responsibilities.
2023-06-08 20:56:00
#Kisses #York #Libre
