Bad Air
Reporting from New York City
As fate would have it, I find myself tonight in the midst of a global news story — one I didn't chase, ask for, or intend.
How many times have I flown into New York City? Hundreds for sure, maybe even more? I’ve been coming here for eight decades — on prop planes, helicopters, and jumbo jets. I have flown in snow, rain, and blinding heat. I have seen the morning sun strike the skyline, the shadows of dusk, and Gotham’s nighttime twinkle.
But I never experienced what I did today: a choking blanket of apocalyptic haze. I have seen this kind of pollution in cities like New Delhi and Beijing. Never New York.
The occasion for my trip is the world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival of a documentary about my life and career. I am honored for the retrospective. I also recognize that the reason I got into this business was to try to contend with the present and the future. It is why I so value the community of Steady and the ability to stay engaged with all of you (thank you for your support).
Right now, the blaring headlines in New York, and indeed around the world, are about the dangerous air quality sparked by raging wildfires in Canada. It’s a toxic plume that stretches over much of a continent.
We have become accustomed to such hellscapes in places like Australia and the American West. However, this week’s news cycle highlights some grave truths we are long past the point of needing to learn: Our precious planet is not all that big; nowhere is safe from the ravages of our climate crisis; whether we like it or not, we are all in this together.
The stakes of this reality rival those of world wars. They represent a threat to our very existence. While the effects of our warming Earth strike hardest at the poor, marginalized, and most vulnerable, they ultimately are a danger that is uncontainable. Wealth might keep you a bit safer for a while, but it doesn’t mean you can breathe the air.
The bleakness of this sickly cityscape breeds despair. But capitulation will only make matters worse. Human ingenuity — through science, technology, creativity, and sheer gumption — has made progress with problems that once seemed unsolvable. If we have any hope our species can do that with the climate crisis, it will first require facing facts with unflinching courage.
I don’t have the stomach to watch Fox News, whose world headquarters are, like the rest of Manhattan, engulfed in deadly particulates. I wonder if they are conveying the urgency of the danger and just as important, its causes. Are they telling their viewers that this crisis poses a direct threat to their health and safety, and that of their loved ones? Do they feel any twinge of self-reflection after peddling conspiracy theories and lies meant to undercut the truth about our changing climate?
Even the best news organizations can sometimes get trapped in their bubbles, and I don’t exempt myself from this criticism. We all feel most keenly that which is closest to our own experiences. Well now, in the media mecca of New York, we can add air that smells like a campfire and looks like a planet from Star Wars. Will this change how urgently our climate crisis is covered?
Shame on all those who spent years lying to the American public about the facts. Your cynicism, greed, and shortsightedness are every bit as responsible for this noxious air as the fire-filled forests up north. You fiddled while much more than Rome has burned.
Sadly, all that is past. The question that is most essential is what we will do now. How can we speed up our transition to clean energy? How can we plan better for future impacts? How can we strategize for resilience, and maybe even some remediation?
The air is thickened by our hubris. But the need to act, decisively and immediately, has never been clearer.
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It's not just about us. We are only one among more than a million species.
This is a human-created disaster, and the news rarely mentions anything about the billions of nonhuman living beings being harmed by events such as this (not to mention the many who likely drowned in Ukraine this week).
We are not the only species who wants to live. We can hide indoors in our N-95s. They can't. It isn't fair or right. Please consider reporting on their plight too.
Thank you, Dan. I live north of Toronto. I have always lived in southern Ontario. I have never experienced smoke and haze like this. Until 1985, I had never experienced a tornado. Now they are no longer uncommon. Climate change… and we have politicians here too, who still deny it. We all need to pay attention to our earth.