Smoke Days Are Here to Stay — and We Must Plan Now

In a climate-focused op-ed, Robinson Meyer argues that widespread wildfire smoke over the East Coast isn’t a one-off anomaly but a new, predictable hazard that current models didn’t anticipate. With mortality and health costs potentially dwarfing other climate damages, the piece calls for urgent adaptation—policies for smoke days in schools, businesses, and municipal planning—and urges us to confront tail risks we’ve long ignored.