Читать книгу Shaped by Snow. Defending the Future of Winter онлайн

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Of the places and peaks I’ve been to in the Wasatch, I haven’t made it up Superior yet. I tried one summer, but there was so much smoke in the air that I decided against it. A few of my friends hiked during that time, and said their lungs and throats burned with the effort and they felt sick afterward.

The mountains aren’t quite the escape from the valley heat that they used to be during summer months. Wildfires have impacted the quality of living in the Salt Lake Valley in recent years. Some of the smoke pollution is from fires in Utah, while some smoke blows in from as far away as California and Oregon. Fires are a common occurrence in the West during late summer and fall, and they’ve been getting worse. The summer of 2018 was the driest year ever recorded in Utah and one of the worst summers for air quality from the resulting smoke. And fires are predicted to get more violent in the American West as climate change continues to affect our atmosphere.

Climate change is a disputed topic but it shouldn’t be. I’d wager that if not for the money in the fossil fuel industry, climate change wouldn’t be a debate. There is little doubt in the scientific community that climate change is happening and that humans are contributing—and that the consequences will be catastrophic.