
Air pollution and climate change go hand in hand. The truth behind this statement may not be immediately apparent to everyone, but those of us who live and breathe in San Francisco now know it all to well. We learned the hard way. As wildfires more than 100 miles north of our city raged out of control last month– fires that were triggered by drought that was fostered by climate change – their smoke clouded our skies, filled our lungs and bathed our skin.
The Bay Area was on air quality alerts for weeks. ‘Red’ alert days, cautioning the very young, elderly and those with heart and lung disease to remain indoors. These announcements soon gave way to a few days of even more extreme, ‘purple’ alerts, when the air was simply unsafe for everyone!
Schools were closed and those who ventured out wore surgical masks – all because of air pollution because of Climate Change!
Wildfires have been a problem in California more or less forever. [Read more…] about Air Pollution, Climate Change and the Skin