Paradise Lost
NOVEMBER 21, 2018
by BILL HACKWELL
Photo Source Scott Schiller | CC BY 2.0
The air quality of the San Francisco Bay Area is the worst in the world right now. We all have air quality apps on our phones now to keep up and as I type the air particles pollution index just went up to 217, as a comparison Beijing, for years vilified as the city with the worst air quality in the world, today is 75. It is really dangerous for anyone to be out in it even with a N95. That is the best over the counter face mask that is now common and known just by its number. As we go into the second week of this, more and more people are inside and those few outside are wearing N95’s, and for the thousands of homeless, well they, as usual, are on their own.
What is sinking into the consciousness of all is that the destination State; the so called Golden State is seriously tarnished. The streets seem abandoned as schools, businesses – and even San Francisco’s famed cable cars are closed. The common view of seeing the iconic Golden Gate Bridge across the bay is becoming a thing of the past and part of the wardrobe of our grand children will most likely require face masks.
There are 3 major fires still not under control in California, 2 in the South and one in Butte County, 165 miles up wind from where we live in Oakland and that fire is the source of the worst air quality here ever. The Butte wildfire is now on record as the worst fire in California history and the worst in the U.S. in over a century. Over 140,000 acres have burned and over 13,000 structures have been turned to ash; 9,800 of them homes.
These fires are a dramatic new norm that climate scientists have been warning us about for years. Just like the hurricanes that get larger and more ferocious in extended storm seasons, as they gain steam over the warming Gulf of Mexico, the hyper charged fires in the West of the U.S. are not only becoming more frequent but are larger, hotter and move with the speed of a tornado inferno.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/21/paradise-lost-2/
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