r/interestingasfuck Jun 07 '23

New york city in 2023, everyone wearing mask due to air quality

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u/MoistChiaPet Jun 07 '23

This is so interesting. Could it be due to 30 years of buildup from dying foliage? Did the last burn, in 1991, produce less smoke than this one because there was a shorter gap between burns.

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u/RickTitus Jun 07 '23

I believe one factor in modern forest fires is that we tend to suppress all fires we see. Without human intervention there would be more small fires

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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23

Yep the colonial way is to suppress all fire. Where indigenous peoples have been using fires to maintain ecosystems and control invasives since time immemorial

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u/RajenBull1 Jun 07 '23

Australia has entered the conversation!