California’s eerie orange haze

For those who think climate change is a hoax, come to California, where dawn looks like dusk under a thick orange haze blanket.

The sun blocked by a clogged sky of smoke and ash, so intense it obliterates the years I lived in smoggy Los Angeles. Having moved from the Midwest in the 1970s, I had no idea there was such a thing as air pollution sickness until my sinus went haywire. But this is like nothing else!

When I relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, the region’s natural air-conditioning from the Pacific Ocean only required ceiling fans. Of late, those breezes have been beaten back by winds blowing off the desert and a state under seize from blazing wildfires. Tack on oppressive triple-digit temperatures and the supernatural is upon us.

This eerie glow hanging over the San Francisco Bay Area feels like I’ve been thrown into a remake of Shaun of the Dead. Any minute now I expect grunting Zombies to knock down my backyard fence in search of fresh food.

Fortunately, the oppressive heat has moved on, at least for now. But forest fire containment remains problematic. The last couple of years have been astonishing in magnitude and destruction. This…