New York's orange sky at midday surprised many. It was a dystopian image from the unprecedented future. Or some people, perhaps, thought they woke up during a nightmare.
What can it mean for the future when the mega-wildfires in Canada literally painted Manhattan and other areas in an orange color? What could it be the meaning of what the old New Yorkers were saying, that, they "have never seen anything like this before?" Smoke and more smoke everywhere.
This orange and the deep yellow – as in a Manila envelope – is a color of alarm before the "Apocalypse Scenes". The climate crisis is happening in front of our eyes. It is climate change that with the rise in temperature, and the increase in drought that it brings along, is causing the devastating forest fires in Quebec.
We also saw in Greece, in the recent past, the disasters caused by the fires in Ilia in 2007, in Mati in 2018 and in Evia in 2021.
As we know, fires give pollution, smoke, darken the sky, and change its color. In New York the blue color of the sky changed to something between bright orange, deep yellow and gray. Orange color with shades of red ocher, with doses of yellow, and sometimes with doses of cloudy gray as time passed. This is the horrible situation many experienced. In Manhattan especially, the orange color was reflected in the glass skyscrapers and multiplied. At the same time, visibility was limited.
There was and there is smoke everywhere. Not just in the area where I live, not just in New York City, but all over New England and the other cities on the northeast coast of the US. I took photos in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, and later on, in Southern Brooklyn, New York. Everyone was taking pictures of the city covered in the orange haze. Infinite surprise alternated with psychology of fear due to the thick smog. I have seen people with eye irritation, and heard of others with asthma attacks.
The greenish Statue of Liberty and the gray Empire State Building also turned orange-yellowish. The iconic Brooklyn Bridge and George Washington Bridge followed closely. The polluted air smelled and smells of burnt wood, even though Canada is hundreds of miles away.
Something you can't easily believe. How did the smell get to New York?
And according to the New York Times, these days "Air quality in New York remained the worst since the 1960s...". You felt it in every breath. Throat was dry and it wasn’t funny. Masks appeared on the people's faces again, in order, to protect themselves from the fine harmful particles of the smoke. World's worst air quality, making New Delhi look like paradise.
So this orange sky is a message of vigilance to all. Perhaps it is also, a lasting lesson for Homo sapiens and not just for the New Yorkers. Human-caused climate change, rising sea levels, massive forest fires, the extinction of so many forms of life through the reduction of biodiversity, the decline in the number of birds in the sky are real events.
They happen right now and affect our lives. The effects reached the streets of New York and its schoolyards. And every person kept himself inside the house, hearing from the radio and television to say, "Stay inside," or, "If you go out, use a N95 mask that protects better."
The orange sky of New York like a painter's painting is the siren from the heart of Manhattan with its glass skyscrapers. It is a siren for the future. We all need to do more to protect the blue planet.
America which is rightfully the country, leading power of the West, from the orange "Big Apple" gives a strong jolt to everyone, on the day the calendar writes: June 7, 2023 – New York City. The natural environment is what lifted Man high in the past, if he destroys it, he will be a "Little Man" («Ανθρωπάκος») who will henceforth look at the orange sky...
* Dimitris Eleas is a New York-based political scientist and contributes to SLpress and Greek City Times. You can contact him via e-mail: [email protected].
