LETTER: That smell in the air is climate change burning up our planet

To Ozaukee Press:

I’m standing at my window, looking northeast over Port Washington, wondering if God just lit a Marlboro, as a devilish red circle ignites in a sky thick with haze. Beneath this peculiar sunrise, Lake Michigan rolls gray.

My phone says the AQI is 408—hazardous air. The cloud over southeastern

Wisconsin is the darkest shade of burgundy on the scale.  It can’t get any worse.  But when I take my dog outside, people look at me like I’m crazy for wearing an N95.

Anyone with a nose can smell the toxins. Everyone can see the smoke. You can open a browser and ask if N95 masks really work against wildfire smoke and see that they do; they filter out 95% of harmful airborne particles. It’s totally reasonable to be wearing one outside today. So why does it feel like I’m on a walk of shame?

If you’ve been downtown in Port Washington last week, maybe you’ve seen the woman across the street from Java Dock with her bullhorn. She’s got a sign hanging around her neck that says “SHARED HOME.”  The way people cross the street and shake their heads makes it clear: we don’t want to be thinking about any of this. Even when someone is screaming through a bullhorn. Even as our air becomes too hazardous to breathe.

I hear people blaming Canada and California, poor forest management and rusting electrical wires. Is it true? Probably. But that should be a starting point for a conversation. Not the end of one. Because it’s also true this very well could be the hottest summer ever, as were

2024’s summer and the summer before that. In the last decade, the world has seen the top 10 hottest years in recorded history. Think about that. Every year in the past decade has made the top 10. And nearly every year has been hotter than the last.

You can’t ignore this solely at your own peril. Not paying attention affects everyone. This is a collective problem that needs collective action.

  But I’m not asking for much. Just that we take the first step—that we stop averting our gaze and admit the whole truth: Our forests are burning more often and more intensely because a warming climate is creating hotter, drier conditions. Poor forest management matters. Ignition sources matter. But pretending climate isn’t part of the story is pretending we can’t smell the smoke.

Zachary Dean

Port Washington