Illustration: Xia Qing/Global Times

As a large swatch of Canada's eastern forest was on fire, haze and smoke choked many residents in the US' East Coast over the weakened. Blanketed in the thickening gray and sometimes orange haze, many, irking at the severe air pollution, felt eerie, helpless, exasperated or mentally depressed.

The atmospheric crisis made breathing in fresh air luxurious, but it also offered another sobering lesson. The suffocating haze is a vindication of the deterioration of our planet's environment and ecosystem caused by climate change.

This crisis, being exacerbated since 1900 with the industrialization of the first group of the world's developed countries including the US, is putting the menace of greenhouse gas emissions on full display. It is again sounding the alarm bells for global political and corporate leaders to put aside their differences and act in concert and with great determination to ramp up efforts to tackle climate change.

The Earth is now burning because forests are becoming hotter and increasingly drier, scientists say. With the release of more carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gas into the atmosphere, the global climate crisis will almost certainly get worse, decimate flora and fauna on the planet and lead to unbearable results like extreme drought, famine and starvation, endangering mankind's very survival.

New York City's air quality "hit worst level on record" on Wednesday and early Thursday, local meteorologists said. Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, called the orange glow of the state's skyline "an emergency crisis." The White House said the US government has dispatched more than 600 firefighters and support personnel to assist Canada in suppressing forest wildfires. And firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, France and Spain were also helping putting out the blazes.

Unfortunately, the wildfires are turning the forests in eastern Canada from important "carbon sinks" (inhalers) to net carbon emitters, complicating efforts to avoid the worst outcomes. On Friday, there were reportedly still more than 400 wildfires blazing in Quebec, Canada, which local officials said were caused by increasingly drought weather resulting from climate change.

On Wednesday, downtown New York was plunged into a deep orange haze and smoky clouds, which obscured visibility and forced many flights to be cancelled. The air quality in Washington DC and Baltimore reached "very unhealthy" levels, while Philadelphia worsened off to reach "hazardous" level. US city mayors were asking residents to don N95 or other face masks while walking on the streets, primary schools and sporting events were shut down, and elderly people with respiratory and other severe conditions were asked to stay indoors.

Experiencing the haunting gray sky, prickling the eyes and inhaling the toxic smog, many Americans were incensed, grumbling that the air last week in their cities were on a par with the air in New Delhi, India, one of the world's most polluted megacities. Some were infuriated.

"Our political leaders demanded to hear only the best-case scenarios, not the more likely and frightening scenarios unfolding before our eyes. Things will only get worse, very quickly, if our leaders continue to bury their heads in the sand," one commenter fumed on a mass media platform in the US. "The scientists didn't predict this particular disaster for this particular week, but this is exactly the kind of thing they've been warning us would happen," another wrote.

Others just felt impotent and helpless. "To be frank, most people in the world are not in a position to make decisions on developing and using less fossil fuel, including dirty oil and coal. Rest assured, the fossil fuel industry that makes big money but knowingly lie and mislead us will never be held accountable, not in this sad excuse of a political and legal system we have in the US today."

Still, some went on to criticize those corporate titans, spinning: "Instead of Vision Pro goggles, perhaps Apple should be making a Breathing Pro device, because they are urgently needed now."

Climate scientists have been warning for decades that global warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions into the planet's atmosphere would lead to serious droughts and a worldwide proliferation of wildfires. Last year, a UN report warned of a global wildfire crisis as many forested areas become hotter and direr. In the US' western Pacific Rim, climate change will significantly impact California's forests and contribute to an increase of wildfires, the US' Environmental Protection Agency said. It predicted that wildfires, a longstanding threat to California, are expected to increase in intensity and frequency due to climate change.

And we have witnessed a growing list of climate change associated dire impacts around the world in the past few years - unprecedented floods, drought, heatwaves, wildfires and more, which are occurring a greater frequency.

The once-in-a-century rainstorm and flooding in July 2021 that pummeled Central China's Henan Province was caused by climate change induced extreme weather patterns. The provincial capital city of Zhengzhou recorded 201.9 millimeters of rainfall within an hour on July 20. The city was inundated and the floods claimed 398 lives.

In 2021, the extreme heatwave baking the US' northwestern Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada states and Canada's British Columbia (BC) from June to July resulted in some of the highest temperatures ever recorded in the region - including 49.6 C in Washington state and BC. The heatwave caused 1,400 deaths and up to $8.9 billion in damages in the US alone.

As scientists have warned us, if world leaders still refuse to come to terms and put a stop to political and diplomatic posturing, we will be living with climate change events for the rest of our lives till one day massive famines and economic catastrophes happen. It's time to significantly curb fossil fuel use and replace dirty energy with renewable and clean solar, wind, hydrogen and nuclear energy.

The author is an editor with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn