Smith, H. (2021, August 19). ‘How much more of this can we take?’ WILDFIRES prompt air quality advisories in Northern California. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-19/wildfires-prompt-air-quality-advisories-in-northern-california.

Officials have recently increased the amount of air quality alerts because of the fires and how much damage they are doing to the air and surrounding environment. The smoke is getting so bad in northern California that there’s ash falling on people’s cars. People are being advised to stay inside if they’re at all seeing or smelling the smoke. Additionally, studies are showing that smoke can contain bacteria or fungus, which could even further affect the air pollution and people’s health when ingesting the smoke.

I think this article is just even more details proving that the air pollution is getting worse. Fires are proving to be a big part of California’s bad air pollution. If the drought gets any worse, or doesn’t get any better, people will suffer from the bad air quality. Even though the fires aren’t directly because of the drought, their impact increases due to the hot and dry climate. It’s related to environmental science because it’s about what humans are doing and how it’s affecting the environment as a whole; including biodiversity, air pollution, etc. If people don’t start to realize the effect they’re having on the environment, it will become the Tragedy of the Commons to a greater scale.