the air is full of smoke

[Anakin McFly]

We've been dealing with pretty bad haze the past couple weeks or so, hovering around the unhealthy Pollutant Standards Index range of 100-200. (good = 0-50; moderate = 50-100; unhealthy = 100-200; very unhealthy = 200-300; hazardous = >300) Everyone is supposed to stay indoors and close the doors and windows, and it's worse for those people who have to work outdoors.

Lots of people are falling sick. If the PSI goes above 300 they'll close the schools. Last night it almost hit 250. I had the fortune to be in an air-conditioned office almost all day and could still smell the smoke. We could barely see the next building through the haze. Most people were in masks. It still wasn't as bad as in 2013, when it hit a record 401 and I was luckily away in NYC. I have asthma, and it would have been bad. But so far I'm just coughing and slightly lightheaded and cranky and picking fights on reddit because I hate the weather.

but over in one part of Indonesia, the PSI hit 984, and at least one person has died. It's so utterly pointless:

"The 15-year-old died last Friday after coughing for three days prior to her death. She was said to have had difficulty breathing because of the haze."
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asi ... ecord-high

This happens every year. It's frustrating and infuriating, especially since the haze is caused by farmers starting over a thousand forest fires in Indonesia as a quick and cheap way to clear the land. But they're often poor and can't afford any other way to do it, and it all comes down again to humans and power structures and things being horrible. And then hospitals are flooded, people get sick, people die, people can't work, open-air businesses suffer, tourists who came all the way for holiday only to be kept indoors suffer, etc. There are currently about a thousand soldiers going through the forests and putting out fires.

that has been the weather report, and why you shouldn't visit this part of the world around August-October.

[sikax]

"The air is full of smoke" also describes Northern California at the moment (well, every summer). Sacramento is right in the middle of three massive wildfires right now. Thousands of people evacuated and whatnot. Extreme haze here, yet somehow we're always immune from the actual fires. Normally we can handle it relatively well, but the persistence of the exceptional drought California is experiencing makes things a fuckload of a lot worse.

[Anakin McFly]

D:

Does this mean I shouldn't go to California either?

[sikax]

Sacramento is safe. And great.

[BruceSmith78]

You should go to El Paso. Low crime rate, mild winters, zero possibility of a natural disaster, great food, friendly people, and surprisingly liberal considering it's Texas. The city is so divorced from the rest of the state by a barren desert, it doesn't really feel like Texas.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

You should go to El Paso. Low crime rate, mild winters, zero possibility of a natural disaster, great food, friendly people, and surprisingly liberal considering it's Texas. The city is so divorced from the rest of the state by a barren desert, it doesn't really feel like Texas.

Was El Paso the one featured on the Daily Show?

[BruceSmith78]

Dunno. Don't watch the Daily Show.