A Dumpster Fire in the Sky

Today, July 15, 2026, Toronto woke up to the worst air on Earth. Not the worst air in Toronto’s memory, not the worst air in Canada — the worst air on the planet, full stop, according to the people whose job it is to rank such things.A heat dome sat over the province like a lid, and smoke from hundreds of uncontrolled wildfires in the northwest rode a jet stream south and settled over the city like something that had decided to stay. The Air Quality Health Index climbed toward 10+, the category reserved for “very high risk.” The CN Tower disappeared into an orange haze that made it look, in photographs, like a postcard from a planet we haven’t met yet.The air doesn’t have the fragrance of a campfire or family cookout – it smells like a dumpster fire. And the sky looks like one endless orange bruise.A university professor, asked to explain it, gave an answer in the gentlest possible words.We’ve seen this increasing in frequency, he said. I think this represents something like the new…