Wildfire Smoke Spreads Haze and Health Warnings To East Coast (nytimes.com) 47
Wildfire smoke from Canada and the Western United States stretched across North America this week, covering skies in a thick haze, tinting the sun a malevolent red and triggering health alerts from Toronto to Philadelphia. Air quality remained in the unhealthy range across much of the East Coast on Wednesday morning. From a report: The map below, based on modeling from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows how the smoke spread across the country. It reflects fine particulate pollution released by wildfires and does not include pollution from other human sources, like power plants and cars. It's not unprecedented to see smoke travel such long distances, said Roisin Commane, an atmospheric scientist at Columbia University, but it doesn't always descend to the surface. The air quality index, a measure developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, spiked across the Midwest and East Coast this week, with numbers hovering around 130 to 160 in New York City, a range where members of sensitive groups and the general public may experience adverse health effects. (The index runs from 0 to 500; the higher the number, the greater the level of air pollution, with readings over 100 considered particularly unhealthy.)
Two questions for msmash (Score:1, Troll)
Question 2: why is the only link in the story behind a paywall?
Re:Two questions for msmash (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Some people may actually have to leave their basements
2. Odd that you seem to care after reading the first point
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Answer 2: fuck paywalls I hate that shit
Shouting the messenger (Score:1)
At least change the Subject. Never can tell when you might write a featured comment. (But featured for insight? Really?)
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There is no paywall you whining twat. Clear your NY Times cookie and be done with it. It's not that hard unless you're lazy.
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I can't read it either but this is likely the map from the article:
https://fire.airnow.gov/ [airnow.gov]
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I thought nerds and geeks, a site that /. caters to, are into science and stuff? Isn't what National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [wikipedia.org], an American scientific and regulatory agency, does considered science?
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Please try to keep up. The right wingnuts have fingered NOAA for being part of a sneaky science cabal intent on changing their life styles because. . .well, they aren't exactly sure but they know it is a sneaky cabal.
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Question 1: why is this news here? Is it news for nerds? Is that stuff that (particularly) matters?
I see what you did there.
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I, for one, am happy that articles locked behind paywalls can be summarized for me here on Slashdot, for free. It saves me time and money!
If I am really interested, I can hit the internet myself to try to find non-paywalled sources. I don't demand that the article posters do this for me though. They have already done enough by giving me a summary that I would otherwise not be able to have due to the paywall.
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Let me clarify for you: I am not a right-wing climate change denialist. It is sad that we arrived at the point where one has to explicitly state their political stance before starting a conversation.
That said, I found the story particularly ill-chosen. I do not live in the US but I've been there a couple of times, and I remember that the phenomenon repeats pretty much every summer in the last decade, with varying degree of severity. If y
Pink moon (Score:3)
Yes, here in Ohio I've been noticing that the moon has been pink for most of the last week, even at relatively high elevations.
Lot of particulates in the upper atmosphere.
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Yes, here in Ohio I've been noticing that the moon has been pink for most of the last week, even at relatively high elevations.
Yes but "relatively high elevation" in Ohio is not really high at all given that the highest point is 472m above sea level. I doubt tiny changes in elevation like that will have any effect on the amount of smoke. Here in Alberta, a lot closer to the BC fires, we have had smoke thick enough to noticeably reduce visibility over ~100m and which hit the top 10+ rating on our air-quality scale of arbitrary units. and we are at over 700m elevation. I suspect like clouds you'll need mountains of a few thousand me
Re:Pink moon (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, here in Ohio I've been noticing that the moon has been pink for most of the last week, even at relatively high elevations.
Yes but "relatively high elevation" in Ohio is not really high at all given that the highest point is 472m above sea level. I doubt tiny changes in elevation like that will have any effect on the amount of smoke. Here in Alberta, a lot closer to the BC fires, we have had smoke thick enough to noticeably reduce visibility over ~100m and which hit the top 10+ rating on our air-quality scale of arbitrary units. and we are at over 700m elevation. I suspect like clouds you'll need mountains of a few thousand metres to rise above it.
I rather suspect the original poster was referring to the degree of elevation of the Moon over the horizon. . . .
high above the horizon [Re:Pink moon] (Score:2)
I rather suspect the original poster was referring to the degree of elevation of the Moon over the horizon. . . .
Yes, sorry, I failed to realize that the wording was be ambiguous. I meant the moon was pink even though it is at a high angle above the horizon. At low elevation angles-- near the horizon--there's nothing at all unusual about the moon being pink, or even pumpkin orange, since you're looking through a long atmospheric path. When the moon is high, though, it's usually white (what the songwriters call "silvery").
...Here in Alberta, a lot closer to the BC fires, we have had smoke thick enough to noticeably reduce visibility over ~100m and which hit the top 10+ rating on our air-quality scale of arbitrary units....
Yes, out there in Alberta, you have reduced visibility. Here in Ohio, we only get a pink moon.
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In NE Ohio here; thankfully there aren't enough particulates near the surface to cause massive air quality deterioration. But that is NOT the case everywhere. Nor is it guaranteed to remain the case here.
Nature can be pretty nasty even without human help, and, while I'm skeptical concerning AGW, I still think that reducing reliance on fossil or other nonrenewable fuels is a really good idea regardless. If nothing else, it would help keep the air cleaner at least when there aren't wildfires burning a subs
Re:Pink moon (Score:5, Funny)
The West Coast burning, the fires last year in Australia, Siberia burning, glaciers in the Alps melting, glaciers in the Himalayas melting, fish in the North Central Atlantic heading farther north for cooler water causing the East Coast fishermen to burn more fuel having to chase them, Greenland melting.
Yes, I see now why you are skeptical.
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You forgot about:
- extreme weather events in Germany, China and the west coast, which is also nearly without water. (indirect link to Climate change, sure).
-The Thwaites glacier (Antarctica) melting from below.
-Entire arctic melting. https://www.arcticdeathspiral.... [arcticdeathspiral.org]
-Massive insect die off.
-Thiamine deficiency in the ocean (one possible culprit being plankton not being able to create viable shells due to ocean acidification)
- CO2 at 400+ ppm
Also global average temperature is an almost meaningless measure f
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Should I wear a mask even if I'm vaccinated against atmospheric dust?
We all had a meeting, and decided tat you in particular should not wear a mask. In fact the suggestion was to concentrate the smoke and breath it if you would be so kind.
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Should I wear a mask even if I'm vaccinated against atmospheric dust?
We all had a meeting, and decided tat you in particular should not wear a mask. In fact the suggestion was to concentrate the smoke and breath it if you would be so kind.
Come now. That wasn't the suggestion. The suggestion was to concentrate the smoke and take long, deep breaths.
Well we have to ease him into the good stuff, ya know.
Re:Thank you California. (Score:5, Informative)
The fires may be in California, but the cause isn't limited to California. More than half of the wildfires in the west are reasonably attributable to climate change [], which is a global problem. [pnas.org]
With respect to forest management practices, there's only so much the state could do, since it only owns about 3% of the forests within its borders. 58% are owned by the Federal Government.
Re: Thank you California. (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, yes CA. Home to the single worst natural gas leak in recorded history
Which was in a private facility and not reported to the state until outsiders called it in. The facility had removed faulty safety valves and failed to replace them. If you're suggesting that regulators should be more aggressive with energy producers, I'd agree, but it's not just a California problem.
and also a state with near zero ability to control the brush that leads to these massive fires.
Again, 97% of that land is owned by someone else -- unless you are suggesting a state brush management mandate for private property owners?
For bonus points tell us how you plan to mandate EV but cannot avoid massive brownouts when it's hot or windy outside even now.
The main problem is air conditioning which has to be on when people need it. EVs can charge during low demand hours, which won't contribute to the problem, as long as the utility offers off-peak pricing. This would both reduce the cost of car operation and stabilize the grid. In California they're looking at the possibility of allowing EV owners to sell back some of their unused range to the electric company during high demand periods; the car would then buy back the kwhs after peak demand passed.
Re: Thank you California. (Score:1)
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By private I am referring to SoCalGas.
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The fires may be in California, but the cause isn't limited to California. More than half of the wildfires in the west are reasonably attributable to climate change [], which is a global problem. [pnas.org]
With respect to forest management practices, there's only so much the state could do, since it only owns about 3% of the forests within its borders. 58% are owned by the Federal Government.
Fuck, a lot of them aren't even in California! Go to https://fire.airnow.gov/ [airnow.gov] and see all the little flame icons in Idaho and Montana.
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Blaming California for a problem that all humans are partially responsible for. SMH
This is why we all need to work together because this eventually affects us all.
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Don't forget Oregon's contribution, we have the biggest (acreage) fire in the US. Ours just seem to burn a little cleaner (less smoke).
not new to many (Score:2)
Monsoon is here, but it's till smoky (Score:2)
Normally on the first day of monsoon, there is a giant hissing sound as rain puts out the state. But this year the smoke persists, because it's wafting to us from as far away as Oregon.
Florida (Score:5, Funny)
Looking at the map, I can see that even the smoke doesn't want to go down to Florida.
Fire smoke (Score:2)
Gee, who would have thought it, something on the west coast affecting the east coast.
NOAA sat pictures give a good view.
FUCK OFF NYTIMES PAYWALL. (Score:1)
n/t
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God forbid they should try to make some money and pay their bills like anyone else.
AQI Range (Score:2)
The summary seems wrong. The scale is relatively unbounded but the last level of severity triggers at 500 (blue, hazardous, if I recall right). If you pull up AQI sensors in China you can see ones that max out at 999, especially during the winter near industrial complex which are inland and more North. I have seen days myself that are close to 500 from dust storms rolling in North of my city. Last year this even affected Beijing.