Minnesota & Montana Report
Two weeks ago, it was hard to breathe for everyone here in Minnesota the Canadian wildfires were wreaking havoc on the lungs of one and all. It affected those with lung conditions worst, but nearly everyone had a cough and a sore throat.
This is a small, effect of global warming/climate change or whatever term you use to refer to the epic problem we have created on this planet. If we do not dramatically work to end the pollution of our atmosphere and help the planet heal itself, we are facing our own extinction.
There are mainly two ways to address pollution. First, stop it at its source. Second, clean it up once it occurs.
Additionally, we believe there can be a reverse-engineered solution to remove particulates and pollutants from the atmosphere through filtration and scrubbing. All smoke stacks should be shut down and the produced pollutants cooled and reincorporated into the ground where carbon needs to be sequestered.
Yes, we recognize that wildfires can be naturally occurring, but the planetary heat rise is drying out the tree tops and makes them great tinder for burning. Additionally, Volcanoes erupt and these sources of carbon production are hard to conquer, but they both account for only a small amount of the manmade problem.
When we are sending trainloads of carbon into our atmosphere on a daily basis, after having been positively impacted by cleaner air during COVID, even though few people went outside, and now these Canadian wildfires, hopefully, this is a wake-up call and a faster end to fossil fuels.
Montana Youth Are Right
On Monday, a landmark climate change trial opened in Montana, where a group of young people contends the state’s embrace of fossil fuels destroys pristine wilderness environments, affects cultural tradition and robs the younger residents of a healthy future.
The problem is this may be too little too late, and with the courts’ system and its appeals process, it may be years before this is resolved. The problem is we cannot wait. The time to act is now, and Minnesota is starting to do so.