With the smoke from the Canadian wildfires this past week affecting parts of the United States, you would have thought the sky had fallen. This was not unexpected, being that Americans are chronic whiners, but I found it almost amusing that the U.S. got a taste of what many parts of the world experience daily.

I recently returned from four months in Thailand and the air pollution throughout the country — from burning corn and other crops, industry, vehicle emissions and so forth — was daily and consistently among the worst in the world.

This was not just in Thailand, but also the case in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, China and other countries of the Southeast Asian region. And it’s only going to get worse going forward for the many affected countries there.

As for America? Maybe we should appreciate how lucky we are to be able to breathe clean air.

John Kitchen

Kona

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