News24.com Europe Also Experiencing Massive Wildfires

A week ago my county and surrounding counties were engulfed in wildfire

smoke from Canada. On Friday that week, I drove my wife Judy to her hair

appointment about a mile from our house. You could smell the smoke, so

we both wore N95 masks to filter out the PM 2.5, i.e. particulate matter that

is 2.5 microns in width, which is about 1/30 the width of a human hair. This

is considered the most serious type of air pollution because particles that

small easily pass by natural filters in our noses, etc. and lodge in our lungs.

On the one-mile drive to the hair salon, I noticed that the traffic was

unusually light. People were taking notice, and many were just not

venturing out al all that day. That crisis passed in a few days with a rain

storm and change in air flow across our region. Blue skies broke out, and

we could all breathe more easily.

However, yesterday I read in the news that 80,000 people in France and

Spain had to be evacuated due to wildfires there. So I thought, well this

demonstrates clearly that these supercharged wildfires are not just a North

American problem—but a warmer world problem. Climate change, i.e.,

global warming dries vegetation out and primes it to become the kindling of

a future wildfire, usually ignited by lightening.

Late in the day yesterday, I read that 180,000 people had to be evacuated

in France and Spain. Then this morning I read the number was 250,000

evacuees.

Just as in North America, in Europe these wildfires are devilishly hard to

extinguish. Everyone is praying for more humidity and some rain to help

the firefighters.