Fog?
No, it’s smoke! That was often the exchange between my wife, Vernee, and I, during this past summer in South Dakota. Every time the wind came out of the north it brought the smoke resulting from the Canadian wildfire devastation. The 2023 fire season, which started early and ended late, burned an estimated 71,000 square miles of land, an area equivalent to the entire state of North Dakota. (On average, some 9,600 square miles burns each year. That was an over 730% increase for 2023.)
There were days when our air quality in Sioux Falls was reported as “very unhealthy” or even “hazardous.” Climatologists estimate that the Canadian summer fires released two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – three times as much as the emissions from Canada’s entire economic activity for a whole year.
Mankind’s sin and mismanagement has contributed to the Bible’s description of the present earth:
For the creation was subjected to futility… the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-22). Not only we, but the creation as well, longs for the return of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will make all things new.
(Revelation 21:1-5)
Source: World Magazine, November 4, 2023, page 15; Don’s comments.
