The Air Quality Index in my town is currently 260 (very unhealthy) due to a surge in wildfires in western Canada and the northwest US. There are additional smaller fires not shown on this map at this zoom level.

From the interactive map it looks like the worst air in the world right now.

    • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We can only hope that this year finally opens the eyes of the deniers. (Before nature decides to finally solve the issue)

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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        1 year ago

        Most of the deniers I know are in the Midwest. They’ve had “hundred year storms”, draught, and winter cold now for about 5 years in a row and it didn’t phase them. Finally this year they were blanketed in wildfire smoke (and in the 25 years I grew up there we never had smoke) - and finally some of them are starting to realize something is up.

        Oh everyone else says it’s a thing, well nothing happened to me so it’s obviously fake.

        but now that it is happening to them directly it might be worth looking into

        • electrogamerman@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Lets face it, that “something is up” is going to be something completely ridiculous and stupid. Source: Corona

          I had a friend that made any imaginable excuse to not believe Corona. When there were no vaccines: wHy tHeRe aRe nO vAcCiNesss?. Where there were vaccines: “ThEy ArE dAnGeRoUs!!”

          If someone doesn’t believe in climate change by now, they are never going to believe it or do something against it.

          • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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            1 year ago

            Man it’s weird, all this smoke, these floods, the regular -30 degree temps. I wonder why they’re happening

            Bill, as he steps into his F350 Super Macho Duty to go fill up diesel again today for $4 a gallon before loading it up with groceries

      • Sacha@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Climate deniers think all the forest fires are some government conspiracy because a bunch of fires starting all at the same time is super sus. Even though it happens all the time after a big heatwave / drought and pine forests are made to burn. Sometimes these trees will just… not spontaneously combust exactly, but pretty much do. Pine forests are built to burn every 2 years or so, it’s one of the ways they reproduce - pines are genetically predisposed to catching fire easily and their sap is very very flammable. These forests burn hot and quickly but a fast fire isn’t a very destructive fire. These trees often are not burnt to the ground. However, we are so effective at putting fires out so this 2 year burn off isn’t happening. So, years of underbrush, etc is building up that otherwise wouldn’t be. This makes what is supposed to be a fast burn fire, into a slow burn one. What would be a natural fireline because there is a large gap between some trees, isn’t one because all the underbrush connects them.

        So it’s not just because of climate change, but we are responsible either way. There aren’t any easy answers for this one because there are houses scattered all over the places. But there is no helping these Trump worshipping conspiracy theorists and we need to consider them a lost cause. Nothing will shake their faith in their Orange God so we must bolster against them and move on without them.

      • HubertManne@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        not from what I have seen but I have noticed people who gave it token acknowledgement before are starting to realize how serious it is.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        Lol no, they’ve sunk too much social capital into it.

        For a bit I’d walk into discussions about how weather has been insane the last few years and say “yep, the climate is changing” (no mention of cause, even) and there’d just be awkward silence. Now I’m hearing people blame the sun, because I guess they’ve figured out a comeback to their own observations.

        Thankfully technology is bailing us out even though we don’t deserve it.

      • ch00f@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        When the fires finally hit the east coast, I was hoping my family would wake up a smidge. Instead, my uncle convinced my Mother that this was the work of bioterrorists.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ahahahahaha. You’re funny. They’re only emboldended in their denial.

        The only actual hope would be that the fires and floods claim them. We need to find a way to basically let the dickheads be the tip of the spear idiots like Alex Jones always claim they supposedly are. If they had to actually face these issues themselves, at actual danger, that might change their lives. Or alternative, at least remove them as an obstacle to actual action.

      • qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Climate deniers won’t accept what is happening until it directly affects them, and even then, they still might do mental gymnastics to make it about something else.

      • elouboub@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They aren’t affected badly enough yet. Plus, there are still immigrants around to blame. Just wait, “immigrants set the fire” will happen.