My eyes were burning, throat hurting, headache piercing ... & I was wearing a vented N95 (under my surgical mask because Covid). Few people have access to those or air purifiers. I was out for a total of an hour and I’ve felt sick for 15 hours & counting (2)
So many of my most beloved places are on fire, many of them gone. I’m worried about so many people — their homes, their lungs, their hearts, their livelihoods. And so many animals. #ClimateChangeIsReal #CovidIsReal #Vote
The only way I can actually photograph the color of the sky is to take pictures of the orange shadows it casts on my floor because the makers of iPhones didn’t envision anyone needing to document non-sky-colored skies #climatechangeisreal(3)
I can’t overstate how toxic this is. This is INDOORS. No living creature should ever breathe this. I’m privileged enough to have an air purifier keeping my basement air (& *only* my basement air) breathable. So many people don’t have that luxury; I think about them constantly (4)
My dad lives in a condo that usually has this amazing view (5)
Yesterday that view looked like this (6) #climatechangeisreal
... And like this (7) #climatechangeisreal
👆🏻I’m so pissed I keep forgetting to number my posts in this thread. I think this is 9. 👇🏻
And yet. There are beautiful flowers, even buds, because that is how life and fire work. There are many trees somehow not falling despite tremendous winds making them bend and crack; there are rivers and coming rain that will hopefully contain the fires. (10)
There’s a new parks pass that came yesterday via USPS (!), ordered a lifetime ago last week, when I could hike & paddle board in places now on fire. There is a wake up call for change. There are so many good people — humans who do incredible things in response to tragedy. (11)
Also: for those who haven’t tried to breathe air with AQI anywhere near 600...First: Stepping into it felt like walking into a sandstorm—tiny sharp toxic particles smacking your face, stinging skin, eyes instantly burning as if blown with sand, but there was no wind or sand (13)
Breathing it in I kept thinking: I imagine this is a bit of what drowning feels like. Your body reflexively pulling a substance into its lungs over & over hoping to find any bits of oxygen. Underwater there is none. In this air there is some, so you don’t suffocate. But ... (14)
And I was wearing *two masks* ... a ventilating N95 +a cloth mask to cover the vent (because vented masks don’t protect others from Covid). What I should have had was a respirator. Most people breathing this were just wearing thin Covid masks (0 smoke protection) or no mask (15)
Also, correction to tweet 2: I said it was a surgical mask. As you can see from this photo 👆🏻 it clearly has flamingos on it. Cloth flamingo masks not generally found in surgical suites. That’s just a Covid mask. LOL. (16)
Ok, now I’m putting on my N95 & leaving my air purifier in the basement to go up to my kitchen to make coffee (current kitchen AQI: 298 which is 😱). Current outside AQI: 426. I’ll surely add more to this thread later. (17) #ClimateChangeIsReal #ButIStillNeedCoffee 😷☕️
Thanks to all RTing & commenting. It feels like much of the world doesn’t realize how bad it is here. As for NY with Covid, Australia with fires. We are actually all in this together 🌍. It’s hard to take in more difficult stories now, I know. But it’s essential #StoriesMatter
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