Wildfires burning across Canada and the Western United States are spewing smoke over millions of Americans – the latest examples of ashy haze becoming a regular experience, with health impacts far greater than scientists previously estimated.
Wildfires burning across Canada and the Western United States are spewing smoke over millions of Americans – the latest examples of ashy haze becoming a regular experience, with health impacts far greater than scientists previously estimated.
Although wildfires have long been part of life in the Western U.S., warmer, drier conditions are fueling bigger blazes that occur more often and for longer. Smoke from these blazes is spreading farther and lingering longer than in the past. In a Sept. 18 study in Nature, Stanford University researchers estimate that continued global warming could lead to about 30,000 additional deaths each year nationwide by 2050, as climate-driven increases in fire activity generate more smoke pollution across North America.
“There’s a broad understanding that wildfire activity and wildfire smoke exposure are changing quickly. This is a lived experience, unfortunately, for folks on the West Coast over the last decade and folks on the East Coast in the last few years,” said senior study author Marshall Burke, a professor of environmental social sciences in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “Our paper puts some numbers on what that change in exposure means for health outcomes, both now and in the future as the climate warms.”
Read more at: Stanford University
Wildfire smoke from Quebec, Canada consumed New Jersey and New York City in June 2023. (Photo Credit: Anthony Quintano / Wikimedia Commons)
