Monday, August 6, 2018

Day 6 - Provo, Utah

We were reluctant to leave our comfortable campsite under a shady tree. But Provo was calling! We had an exciting event scheduled. As we made our way 4 hours north to Provo, we took the opportunity to administer our climate survey along the say. Without the luxury of time to dive into neighboring towns, we surveyed a number of gas station and convenient store employees. We’re pooling this info together, and look forward to sharing our findings with you soon! As we edged closer to Provo, we seemed to be entering a wall of reduced visibility. From a distance I told Athina, “we’re about to enter a rain storm!” As we got closer, it became apparent that rain was not ahead. Fog? In Utah? The haze that we ultimately entered ended up accompanying us all the way to town. We took notice of what seemed to be gorgeous mountains all around, but we couldn't fully appreciate them in the strange haze.  I have no doubt that Provo is gorgeous on a clear day. After freshening up at the scenic home of one of our lovely event organizers, we made our way to an Indian restaurant, where our event hosts treated us to a lovely dinner. At dinner, we learned that the town haze was smoke from the wildfires burning in California. I was shocked! This far away!? As it turns out, summertime haze in Provo is somewhat common as meteorological conditions favor the accumulation of air pollution. But things are getting worse, particularly as fires become more frequent. Our Provo event took place at the public library. It was a beautiful building. We had probably 25 or 30 attendees who came to hear us speak about climate change. We had a lively Q/A to follow. As the event concluded, Athina and I packed ourselves back into the car for another 3 hours of night driving, pulling into our roadside AirBNB around 1AM. Going "On the Road for Climate Action" has no doubt come with a tight and tiring schedule, but it's work worth doing!


Click here to learn more about "On the Road for Climate Action!"

                                                                              Dr. Shahir Masri
                                                                    



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