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8m ago / 3:49 PM EDT
Startling images show NYC skyline Monday versus today
14m ago / 3:44 PM EDT
Black residents of Detroit brace themselves for rougher conditions
Detroit’s air quality is among the world’s worst due to the Canadian wildfires, potentially exacerbating many health problems that residents of the predominantly Black city have struggled with for generations.
Detroit resident Sandra Turner-Handy, a retiree of the Michigan Environmental Council, said that before the fires, locals had been breathing high particulate matter and other toxins “on a consistent basis.” She said she is especially concerned about the effects of the fires on those who live near the Detroit River, an area sought for industrial use and which contains high levels of pollution.
She said Detroit’s “asthma rates are three times that of other cities in our state.”
Turner-Handy, who has emphysema — a lung disease that causes breathlessness — calls Detroit’s pollution problem an “environmental injustice” and has concerns about how the smoke could spread to her area, potentially impacting her own health.
“I have a fear of anything that’s going to impact my respiratory health,” she said. “I have a great fear.”
Communities of color and low-income populations are exposed to higher levels of PM2.5, atmospheric fine particulate matter, compared to other groups in the U.S., according to a study last year conducted by Harvard University. A 2020 poll by the Environmental Defense Fund found that 58% of Black adults living in Detroit are twice as likely than white residents to be concerned about air pollution in their communities. Poor air quality conditions are even worse in regions like southwest Detroit, whose residents experience asthma hospitalization rates three times higher than the state average.
Experts like Jessie Singer, author of “There Are No Accidents,” said the recent air pollution only illustrates the ways Black communities are made more vulnerable to environmental disasters and climate change through policy and infrastructure decisions. For example, Black people are more likely to live where there is greater exposure to air pollution as a result of residential segregation, according to the American Lung Association.
“Systemic racism defines whether or not you have the excess cash to have an air filter in your home,” Singer said. “If you have less access to health care, if you grow up in a polluted environment, if you don’t have the economic freedom to take time off work, then when a wildfire happens, you’re more vulnerable.”
12m ago / 3:46 PM EDT
Broadway show starring Jodie Comer briefly halted after star has ‘difficulty breathing’
Today’s matinee performance of the Broadway production of “Prima Facie” was briefly paused after the show’s star, Emmy Award-winning actor Jodie Comer, experienced “difficulty breathing,” according to a spokeswoman for the production.
The performance was “halted approximately 10 minutes into the performance after Jodie Comer had difficulty breathing due to the poor air quality in New York City because of smoke from the Canadian wildfires,” said a spokeswoman for The Press Room, a theater publicity firm.
The spokeswoman said the performance was set to start again “from the top” with understudy Dani Arlington filling in for Comer in the role of Tessa.
Comer is best known for her co-starring role on the twisty BBC America spy thriller “Killing Eve.”
45m ago / 3:13 PM EDT
New York City’s air quality is officially the worst in the world
The current air quality in New York City hit more than 340 on the air quality index scale this afternoon, making it the worst in the world, according to IQAir, a Swiss monitoring service.
29m ago / 3:29 PM EDT
Is it safe to exercise outdoors when the air quality is poor?
As air quality continues to plummet, runners may want to rethink their plans, experts say.
An air quality index over 150 signals that outdoor exercise may be risky, said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonologist with the American Lung Association.
“It’s like swimming in polluted water,” he said.
“You’re going to get irritated, probably 20 minutes into your jog,” Galiatsatos said. “You’ll develop a cough, some dryness and you may even get a little bit more breathless because what you’re trying to do is some level of endurance, but your lungs aren’t breathing in healthy air, they’re breathing in toxins, they’re breathing in noxious stimuli. You’ll feel that toll.”
26m ago / 3:32 PM EDT
414 wildfires burning in Canada, more than 200 of them ‘out of control’
There are 414 wildfires burning in Canada as of today, 239 of which are considered “out of control,” Canadian Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said in a news conference.
To date, an estimated 20,183 people remain evacuated from homes and communities.
“It’s all hands on deck and it’s around the clock,” Blair said of the government response to the blazes.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said hundreds of armed forces members have been deployed to provide additional support to firefighters and affected communities.
Washington is also lending support, with the U.S. Forest Service providing 648 personnel as of today.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters today that President Joe Biden was briefed on the fires last week and has been regularly updated since then. The U.S. has also sent equipment such as water bombers, she said.
1h ago / 2:55 PM EDT
The orange haze is straight out of ‘Blade Runner 2049’
Twitter users in New York City and other smoke-shrouded cities in the eastern U.S. evidently feel like they’re living in the post-apocalyptic dystopia of “Blade Runner 2049.”
In the movie, a sequel to the 1982 cult classic, Ryan Gosling’s character hunts bioengineered humans known as “replicants” and treks through barren landscapes bathed in a mysterious orange fog.
The visual similarities between real-life New York and the Oscar-winning cinematography of “Blade Runner 2049” were not lost on cinephiles:
1h ago / 2:54 PM EDT
George Washington Bridge barely visible through smoke
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