By Ruby Storey, Storytelling for Social Change Intern, EarthLab Summer 2026
In early August, I walked through the University of Washington campus toward EarthLab’s home in Condon Hall, as I had every week since the end of June. Unlike the times before, my usually clear view of the Seattle skyline was blurred by a wall of thick gray haze.
The Puget Sound’s skies had flooded with smoke from fires burning in Spokane, the North Cascades, and across the Canadian border in British Columbia.

