How West Coast Wildfires Affect Chicago, The Midwest And The World

By Steve Bynum
Western Wildfires Smoke Stretches East
This image and description from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), which is aboard the Aqua satellite, shows captured carbon monoxide plumes coming from California wildfires over a three-day period from Sept. 12 to 14, 2020. The image shows three-day averages of carbon monoxide concentrations around 3 miles (5 kilometers) up in the atmosphere. The red and orange areas indicate regions with extremely high carbon monoxide concentrations of greater than 350 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). The more normal, background concentrations of carbon monoxide show up as yellow and green, with amounts between 30 and 50 ppbv. NASA / AIRS via AP
Western Wildfires Smoke Stretches East
This image and description from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), which is aboard the Aqua satellite, shows captured carbon monoxide plumes coming from California wildfires over a three-day period from Sept. 12 to 14, 2020. The image shows three-day averages of carbon monoxide concentrations around 3 miles (5 kilometers) up in the atmosphere. The red and orange areas indicate regions with extremely high carbon monoxide concentrations of greater than 350 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). The more normal, background concentrations of carbon monoxide show up as yellow and green, with amounts between 30 and 50 ppbv. NASA / AIRS via AP

How West Coast Wildfires Affect Chicago, The Midwest And The World

By Steve Bynum
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Reset checks in with a sustainability expert and a Portland-based reporter to discuss the causes, aftermath and global consequences of massive wildfires on the West Coast.

GUESTS: Karen Weigert, Reset sustainability contributor; vice president at Slipstream; former chief sustainability officer for the city of Chicago

Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press reporter based in Portland, Oregon

Jessica Hellmann, director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment; Ecolab chair in environmental leadership