Warming is fueling ever larger wildfires in the U.S. West, which are becoming a major source of pollution.
Warming is fueling ever larger wildfires in the U.S. West, which are becoming a major source of pollution. A new study finds that warming is to blame for nearly half of particulate pollution and two-thirds of emissions unleashed by western wildfires.
Warming is giving rise to bigger and more frequent fires by fueling hotter, drier weather and more intense droughts. In parts of the U.S., fires are up to four times as large, and strike three times as often as they did before the turn of this century.
Bigger fires are producing huge volumes of smoke. In the summer of 2020, a particularly brutal fire year, wildfires were the leading source of particulate pollution in the West, while in California, fires that year produced more carbon emissions than every power plant in the state put together.
Read More: Yale Environment 360
Photo Credit: Pixabay
