16 July 2026 A Dystopian Morning
Last night I woke up to the smell of smoke and thought my house was on fire. I looked out into the street light and hoped the smoke wasn’t a neighbor’s house on fire. This morning I breathed a smoky sigh that no, it wasn’t my home on fire, it’s just the Canadian wilderness. This isn’t normal. I’ve only experienced this once before in 2023 when I returned home from Japan. I often wonder if “regular people” notice all of the environmental red flags I see daily. There’s a burden to noticing the patterns, small changes and scientific evidence of our fragile ecosystem struggling. Will the average person who spends 5-7% of their day outdoors notice the sun is clouded by smoke? Will they clock this as scary as I see it? T hat little orange ball is the sun .
