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Smoke gets in your eyes. And your hair. And your clothes. And your lungs.
This week, Pennsylvania was placed under statewide Code Red and then Code Purple ("very unhealthy") air-quality alerts as smoke from enormous wildfires in Canada and Minnesota drifted south and settled over a wide swath of the eastern United States. It is a sign of things to come.
Oil companies used to tell us that burning fossil fuels had little impact on warming the planet - just as cigarette companies once told us that smoking was not bad for our health. The industry claimed that increasingly extreme temperatures and severe storms were natural weather variations. It was obvious that what they told us was self-serving. It was also dead wrong.
For decades, scientists warned that a rise in global temperatures of even a few degrees would wreak havoc on climates around the world and disrupt life on Earth. The evidence is no longer confined to scientific reports. Night after night, the television news is filled with gripping stories of extreme weather and severe storms, with ordinary Americans whose homes and lives have been torn apart. Scientists do not claim that every day will be hotter or winter will disappear, but that the entire climate system is being knocked off balance, producing more erratic and extreme weather. When we say, "This weather is crazy," we are sensing that the scientists were right.
At a time when the threat is becoming impossible to ignore, President Trump is not only failing to slow climate change; he is dismantling past efforts. During the 2024 campaign, he told oil-industry executives that if they raised $1 billion for his campaign it would be a "deal" for them because he would reverse regulations they opposed. The record shows that the president went on to cripple wind energy, cut support for electric vehicles, and slash limits on greenhouse-gas pollution.
Fighting climate change does not mean shutting down all oil production or sending every gas-powered car to the junkyard. The transition to cleaner energy can create good jobs, lower energy bills and strengthen our economy. Progress can be gradual, but it must be steady. One thing is certain: following President Trump backward will not move us forward.
The smoke blanketing Pennsylvania and other states is a vivid vision of things to come. We will see more extreme weather: punishing heat waves, bone-chilling cold, severe droughts, uncontrollable wildfires, destructive floods, Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, and monster tornadoes. The worst may strike elsewhere first, but Pennsylvania will not escape unharmed.
Today, there is smoke in our eyes. If we do nothing, it will be tears.
HARRY GURAL
Lewisburg
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom