In Detroit, where air pollution was worse than any other city in the world Thursday, a basement coffee shop became a bunker from the smoke. One Washington summer camp forbade children from an outdoor pool and kept them inside. On a third-straight day of heavy haze in Chicago, an improvement in air quality meant it was merely “unhealthy” to venture outside, rather than “very unhealthy.”
The latest disruptions made it all the more clear: Record-setting, out-of-control Canadian wildfires will not be put out any time soon, meaning more Americans than ever face continuing threats of dangerously poor air quality this summer.
Put differently: The United States could be in for a summer of smoke.
“The number of people that are exposed is unprecedented in the modern era,” said Michael Wara, an energy and climate policy expert at Stanford University.
