Director Tony Wexler was interviewed by Beond.tv recently about how climate change is causing an increased presence of wildfires in California and across the US. Watch the full interview that aired on KDOC here. 

Recently the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) published a report stating that 85% of parks deal with unhealthy air due to ozone. While ozone is thought of typically resulting from vehicle and industrial emissions, park plants also emit compounds that react with NOx gasses to make ozone.

In March, Valero's Benicial refinery spit out pollution which caused city officials to warn residents to stay indoors. The Bay Area Air Quality Monitoring District sent a van to monitor the situation because currently there is no stationary air quality monitoring device in the residential areas despite the fact that it's home to one of the largest refineries in California. 

As explained in the article "Valer's March Pollution Release Exposes Weaknesses in Benicia's Air Monitoring System" by Ted Goldberg: 

An article by Ted Goldberg of KQED News has looked into the release of a large unexpected plume of petroleum coke dust by Valero's Benicia refinery. The release had local fire officials encouraging people with respiratory problems to avoid activity outdoors. 

A partial shutdown of the facility resulted from this incident. This is considered the worst breakdown since a 2017 power outage.

In the pilot episode of ABC10’s new series, The New Normal, California’s leaders tell us we’ve entered a “new normal” of more intense wildfires. ABC10 explores the recent California wildfires, what experts are doing to prevent deadly mega-fires, and the struggles between letting fires burn and air pollution.

Anthony Wexler shows ABC10 the mobile air monitoring stations used to measure wildfire smoke and how the pollution is a big obstacle to the burning plan.

Watch the entire episode this Friday at 11pm on ABC10 or on YouTube below

National Public Radio shares an update on the California Wildfires and how the smoke is affecting people far and wide.  "This is a whole new game" said Dr. Tony Wexler.  Raquel Maria Dillon of KQED said Dr. Wexler emphasized that people exposed to heavy smoke over days, weeks, and even months could have adverse health implications, which is a concrete effect of climate change.