Harmful western wildfire smoke reaches East Coast
21 July 2021
Smoke from the wildfires engulfing the U.S. West and Canada is carrying harmful air pollution as it reaches East Coast cities including New York and Washington, D.C., this week.
Driving the news: The coast to coast smoke clearly visible from space is due to the nearly 300 wildfires burning in British Columbia and the more than 80 large blazes in the US.
- The towering pyrocumulus clouds coming off these fires is lofting smoke all the way into the stratosphere, and the jet stream is carrying the smoke eastward across the country.
Our thought bubble: Due to the presence of small particulate matter, wildfire smoke can be hazardous to human health, even many, many miles downwind. The fires are also a source of carbon dioxide emissions, thereby acting to worsen global warming.
By the numbers: Smoke from the fires blanketed New York City sending its air quality index to an 170 before dropping to a still-unhealthy 158 on Tuesday — second only to the AQI of 174 in Krasnoyarks, Russia.
- Boston, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut, also recorded unhealthy AQI readings that were higher than 150.
Context: The wildfires, many of which started when a severe heat wave erupted in June, have been linked by scientists to human-caused climate change.
Scale of ongoing N America #wildfires with high daily total intensity & estimated emissions since 1 June for different states/provinces reflected in #CopernicusAtmosphere GFAS data as smoke covers coast to coast in 12-h AOD forecast from 20 July 00 UTC https://t.co/jaJ1cEEDyZpic.twitter.com/vtqVRlyL7L
— Mark Parrington (@m_parrington) July 20, 2021
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.