New York’s famous Statue of Liberty and the “skyline” of Manhattan are shrouded in a disturbing orange haze this Wednesday as wildfires hit Canada, leaving the air virtually unbreathable for millions of people.
“You Can’t Even See the Statue of Liberty”, Jack Wright protested on the banks of the East River in Brooklyn. This 76-year-old ex-lawyer claims to have “quit smoking 50 years ago,” but says he had to cough through the dust like he did when he smoked.
The masks used to avoid covid-19 are now reappearing on the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, as has Hugh Hill, an area resident who today walked his dog in Central Park, the giant green lung of the economic and cultural capital of the United States.
With his eyes and throat “burning”, this 43-year-old lawyer says he has done everything possible not to inhale too much this air with the smell of burning wood.
“I don’t know if it’s psychological or physical, but I know there are benefits to wearing a mask, even if it obviously can’t prevent everything.”told the agency France Press (AFP).
Right in midtown Manhattan, atmospheric conditions are getting worse by the hour: an increasingly thick orange haze has engulfed the skyscrapers, making the air nearly unbreathable for office workers in the region.
Since Tuesday, city and state officials have issued more warning messages to New Yorkers about the sudden and unprecedented impact of these wildfires in Canada, the intensity and frequency of which are linked to climate change.
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senate Majority Leader in Washington, said he was “saddened to see that New York City, which has traditionally had good air quality, now has some of the worst in the world because of these wildfires” in Quebec, 800 kilometers north of the city.
According to state governor Kathy Hochul, the air quality index has dropped from “harmful” to “extremely harmful” and all extracurricular and extracurricular activities have been suspended.
According to IQAir.com, which tracks pollution levels around the world, New York’s air quality index hit a record 324 on Wednesday afternoon, on a scale of zero to 500. PM2.5 microparticles are more than ten times higher than World Health Organization standards.
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations – headquartered in New York – also took to social media to share a photo of New York’s orange sky and call for action on climate change.
This is the view today from my office at United Nations Headquarters in New York City as smoke from Canada’s wildfires moves south, decreasing air quality across much of the northeastern United States. This is something that every year more and more people around the world are experiencing. Half of humanity is in the danger zone of wildfires and other extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and extreme storms”He wrote.
“With global temperatures rising, the need to quickly reduce the risk of wildfires is more important than ever. We’re running out of time to make peace with nature, but we can’t give up”he concluded.
Source: DN
