While rain did help improve our air quality ahead of yesterday's World Cup final in which Spain prevailed over Argentina, scores of Canadian wildfires continue to burn with our regional air quality only graded as "moderate" meaning that the millions of people with pre-existing respiratory and or coronary conditions still need to be mindful of their outdoor exposure.
According to the New York Times, most of the close to 1,000 Canadian wildfires are in such vast remote wilderness areas they cannot be fought effectively and are often left to burn. As the climate has continued to warm, the wildfire season has become longer and the areas burned by forest fires have nearly quadrupled since the 1970s, the Times reports.
As to be expected, President Trump's response has been to blame Canada and threaten to impose new tariffs on Canada who he says is being "willfully negligent" by "not properly maintaining" their forests".
Of course, wildfires remain a critical issue here in the US in places like Colorado where last month three firefighters were killed when trying to stay ahead of a wildfire in western Colorado.
Trump's bullying remarks toward Canada come of course as Trump denies there's a climate crisis, wages a war of choice on Iran, cancels alternative energy projects and promotes increasing the burning of coal and oil.
All of this while he cuts US wildfire fighting and scientific research into the effects of wildfires including the impacts of toxic metals like copper, lead and zinc that are released into the atmosphere. Specifically, the Trump regime is planning to close two thirds of the Forest Services 77 research labs.
This morning, our weekly current events conversation with labor historian Dr. Joe Wilson will include Jenna Flanagan, who hosts We Decide: America at the Crossroads, heard here on Mondays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
This morning we will also get an update on some troubling reports about a New York State North Country hospital closing its maternity practice, a growing trend in much of America where over a third of counties, that's over 1,000 counties, don't have a single birthing facility or obstetric clinician.
In our second hour we are going to check in with our FDNY EMS unions about a new bill introduced by New York City Council Member Joann Ariola, who chairs the Council's Fire and Emergency Management Committee to provide a $20,000 retention and recruitment bonus for FDNY EMTS and $25,000 payment to FDNY EMS paramedics.
This proposal comes as the city's EMS crisis continues with scores of ambulances sitting idle every day for the lack of a crew while response times for the most serious medical emergencies continues to deteriorate.
This EMS proposal follows on the heels of a similar one time $10,000 bonus passed by the New York City Council last week for New York City's paraprofessional teachers who help New York City's special needs children get through their school day.
Currently that workforce, like so many members of FDNY EMS, are making poverty level wages.
