OUTSIDE my window, the skies are brown and the sun is a deep reddish-orange. Unfortunately, that isn’t because I’ve moved off-world to a beautiful alien planet orbiting a red dwarf star .

This is simply what “outside” looks like in San Francisco when vast swathes of the western US are on fire . Even the light itself is alarming. Its Mordor-esque gloom makes everything seem like it is the wrong colour. (For a striking image of California’s Bidwell Bar Bridge against the backdrop of the state’s wildfires,  (see “ Wildfire nightmare captured in harrowing image of California burning “.) …