Smoke gets in your eyes – again and again. I don’t know if you recall, but the worst air quality days of the year came back to mind while reading an article in the Banner about smoke from Virginia and WVA fires. Last spring, smoke from the Canadian fires produced such bad air quality that many of us suffered from visual, sinus, and respiratory ailments.  As a result, some of us did not go out and even added filters to our indoor air circulatory systems. I also felt a strong claustrophobic feeling when trapped in my home to do my best to avoid the poor-quality air outside. I also recall smoke from California in precious years, impacting us here on the East Coast.

I wonder what it would take to burn down the forests of the Eastern woodlands. We have billions of trees, miles of aging electric utility lines, extended droughts, and increasing winds from the over-heating oceans – all of which will probably result in more fires and many more days of bad air quality. I hope these smaller fires will help keep us focused on doing whatever we can do to slow and reduce the use and mis-use of fossil fuels. We have to take actions now in everything we do. These fuels are clearly one of the major contributors to the warming of the surface of the planet – our biosphere, our home.

Ned Tillman, author of The Big Melt

Columbia, MD