A Teenager's Account On Smokey Skies In Seattle

Up until now, I took clean air for granted.

During the summer I usually love to go on long walks to take in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and breath the fresh Seattle air.

Whenever I travel to pretty polluted places like, for example, Manhattan, I feel almost proud of how clean the environment where I live is.

This summer is different though. This summer, I feel like I’m suffocating.

Now I’m young (15-years-old) but ever since I’ve had memories, I've lived in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Seattle is known for our crisp, cool air. But right now , because of fires in BC caused by dry hot weather (cough, global warming, cough) the air is thick, sticky, and I feel like I’m suffocating.

The Seattle skyline looks like pictures Beijing I’ve seen, where it’s so polluted you can barely make out buildings, and when I stepped out of the house today, instead of smelling trees, soil, and the freshness of the Pacific Northwest, I felt like I was breathing in exhaust.

Rain would clear the smoke away, and Seattle is known for being rainy. Except it’s usually dry right now, because Seattle has just broken our record for most days without rain, according to The Seattle Times. Some scientists link this to the effects of global warming.

Eventually the sky's will clear again, but it's a dark look into the not-so-far future where clean crisp air and other basic human needs are being denied thanks to the worsening environmental crisis. ‘

It kills me what's happening to my beautiful Pacific Northwest- and the world.

We can’t ignore the signs mother nature is sending us any more, or else suffocating air could become commonplace even in places even as pristine as the Pacific Northwest.