A City Beneath The Smoke
Toronto recorded the worst air quality of any major city Wednesday as wildfire smoke and an oppressive heat dome combined into a public-health emergency—one local manifestation of a widening season of fires and extreme heat across North America and Europe.
The skyline of one of North America’s largest cities nearly disappeared Wednesday beneath a toxic haze. Smoke from hundreds of forest fires settled over Toronto while stagnant heat trapped pollutants close to the ground, sending the city to the top of international air-quality rankings and prompting warnings for children, older adults and people with heart or respiratory conditions.
The emergency was Canadian in location but global in meaning. Smoke was also spreading toward the United States, while wildfires and exceptional heat strained communities from France and Spain to Britain and Minnesota. The pattern illustrates how climate-driven disasters increasingly cross borders: flames may burn far away, yet their smoke, health costs and economic disruption can envelop cities hundreds or thousands of kilometres downwind.
