The Smoggy Future of the West
While a red sun like this one witnessed yesterday in Toronto is great for that perfect Insta story, it can also be a sign that there’s something strange in the neighborhood…
Yesterday, due to forest fires in North-Western Ontario, a thick smog enveloped most of downtown Toronto for most of the evening and into this morning. At one point yesterday evening, Toronto was the most heavily air polluted major city in the world, above serially choked cities such as Jakarta, Beijing and Dhaka.
As climate change continues its relentless march, Western cities are going to experience more and more days like yesterday in Toronto. This apocalyptic haze in Toronto brings to mind similar occurrences in San Francisco and Sydney last year.
What’s the problem here? The oxygen we breath is incredibly important for our cardiovascular health. Polluted air means our bodies have to work twice as hard to get enough oxygen in. Outdoor exercise only compounds the problem and frequent exposure to heavily polluted air can have long term consequences for our lungs, throat and cardiovascular system.
As of the 5pm yesterday reading, the Air Quality Index was at the second highest warning level (10) from the Downtown Toronto monitoring station. According to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the general population should avoid strenuous activities outdoors until the smog lifts.
There have been bad days for smog over the last 12 months but there hasn’t been a Level 8 AQI (High Risk), let alone a Level 10, recording from the Downtown Toronto AQI Monitoring station since May 27 2020
This Air Quality Index draws on a number of measures, one of which is the level of PM2.5 particles in the air. Yesterday, PM 2.5 Levels in Toronto yesterday were quite literally through the roof.
According to the New York State Department of Health, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an air pollutant that is a concern for people’s health when levels in air are high. PM2.5 are tiny particles in the air that reduce visibility and cause the air to appear hazy when levels are elevated. Outdoor PM2.5 levels are most likely to be elevated on days with little or no wind or air mixing.
Most importantly, particles in the PM2.5 size range are able to travel deeply into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs. Exposure to fine particles can cause short-term health effects such as eye, nose, throat and lung irritation, coughing, sneezing, runny nose and shortness of breath. Exposure to fine particles can also affect lung function and worsen medical conditions such as asthma and heart disease.
In Toronto, there had not been any days in the last 18 months where PM2.5 levels were anything close to these levels. The scale usually tops out at 10, 20, 30 or 40. Even the worst AQI index day since today the scale topped out below 100.
For context, the PM2.5 levels in Toronto yesterday were higher than any day in the last month in summer Beijing, which is one of the most notoriously air polluted cities in the world.
For a vision of the future, we don’t need a time machine. Just look to the choked cities in Asia that experience these kinds of toxic fogs on a daily basis. As the planet continues to warm and forests increasingly come under threat from wildfires, these ‘Dune’-esque sunsets will become a depressingly familiar sight across Western Europe, Canada, the US and Australia.
