Fires in Canada continued Thursday to carry their smoke towards the eastern United States, and even as far as Norway, the Norwegian Institute for Climate and Environmental Research (NILU) announced on Friday June 9. It is a rare episode of air pollution that affects more than a hundred million Americans and is “a stark reminder of the consequences of climate change”, according to US President Joe Biden.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, more than 111 million people were affected by air quality alerts in a large part of the northeastern United States.
In Norway, “very low” concentrations of smoke particles have been measured since Monday, in particular at the Birkenes station in the south of the country, researcher Nikolaos Evangeliou announced. The measurements have since varied depending on the intensity of the fires, the direction of the winds and the precipitation.
“We don’t see a serious spike or a significant increase…so we don’t see any environmental problem [in Norway] nor any serious health risk,” he said.
“It reminded me of 9/11”
In the United States, these fumes have had concrete consequences on the lives of the inhabitants of the east of the country, and on their health. The region is unaccustomed to this type of smoke, unlike the American West, where fires are common.
In Washington, the situation worsened on Thursday: the air pollution alert having temporarily changed to “purple” (“very unhealthy”), its highest level before “brown” (“dangerous “), before being downgraded to “red” (“unhealthy”) in the late afternoon.
An event celebrating Pride Month, which was to take place Thursday night outside the White House, has been postponed, as has the baseball game which was to oppose the local team, the Nationals , to the Phoenix Diamondbacks.
The concern mainly concerns the health of fragile people, such as children, the elderly or those with heart or respiratory problems. Emergency room visits related to asthma attacks have increased in New York City, a spokesperson for the city’s health department said. But these “few hundred” patients are not overflowing the wards, he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Linda Juliano, 65, as she accepted one of the millions of face masks distributed to New Yorkers. “It reminded me a lot of 9/11, seeing the sky filled with smoke,” deeming the situation “agonizing.”
Like the one in Washington, the Bronx and Central Park zoos have been closed, and New York public school students are scheduled to take their classes remotely on Friday. At New York and Philadelphia airports, flights suffered delays due to low visibility, the Civil Aviation Agency, the FAA, said.
Heatwaves and decreasing rainfall
Global warming exacerbates the risk of fires and their intensity. The increase in temperature, the multiplication of heat waves and the drop in precipitation in places represent an ideal combination for their development.
Although no study assessing the link between the current fires in Quebec and climate change has yet been conducted, “the conditions we see in Canada are in line with the warnings of climate specialists”, noted Thursday Stéphane Dujarric, door- word of the UN Secretary General.
Citing both smoke from the fires and an upsurge in flooding across the United States, White House spokesman Andrew Bates slammed the Republican opposition for “adhering to debunked conspiracy theories, denying the existence and nature of climate change”.
Joe Biden, who spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday, promised to help fight those fires.
800,000 hectares affected
The fire season in Canada this year, which has only just begun, will be “probably the worst in the history” of the country, with “tremendous consequences here in the United States”, warned the American president.
With nearly 800,000 hectares affected by the fires, according to the authorities, Quebec is experiencing an already historic season. Twice as many fire starts have been recorded since January compared to the average at this time over the past ten years.
Thursday, the French-speaking province still lists more than 150 active fires, including nearly 90 out of control. New reinforcements – from the United States, France or Portugal – are expected in the coming days.
The situation remains worrying in several regions, according to Stéphane Caron, prevention and communications coordinator with the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire in Quebec. “We are only at the very beginning of this fire season,” he worried.
The risks of new fire outbreaks are still significant: in the western part of Quebec, they are considered “extreme” by the authorities. These blazes are high intensity and fast-spreading, so very difficult for firefighters to stop, they explain.
