According to Marshall Burke, an associate professor at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability and co-author of the study, there has been a notable slowdown and even reversal in air quality progress over the last decade. From 2000 to 2015, particle pollution, specifically PM 2.5, decreased by 38% in the United States. However, the trend changed, and pollution from particulate matter increased by 3% from 2016 to 2022. In California and Nevada, there was a more significant decline from 2000 to 2015 (32%), followed by a dramatic increase of 14% from 2016 to 2022, primarily due to wildfires. Similar patterns were observed in the Pacific Northwest and the American Southwest, where particulate pollution decreased by 19% from 2000 to 2015, only to surge by 21% and 12% respectively from 2015 to 2022, again because of wildfires. Even the Midwest, South, and East Coast experienced a pause in their air quality improvements due to smoke from Western wildfires.
The study reveals that wildfire smoke has had a detrimental impact on air quality trends in 35 states since 2016 and is showing no sign of abating. Smoke from over 1,000 wildfires in Canada this year already affected cities like New York, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Currently, wildfires near the Oregon border are forecasted to continue polluting the Bay Area with unhealthy air through Friday afternoon. There are multiple reasons for the rise in wildfires, including a century of fire suppression leading to unnaturally thicker forests that burn more intensely, climate change causing severe droughts and heatwaves, and increased human-caused fires due to migration to rural areas. Consequently, the issue of wildfire smoke as a health problem is expanding, though it is not addressed in the nation’s air pollution regulations.
Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and co-author of the study, suggests the need for flexibility, new tools, and experimentation to combat this issue. Soot, one of the most harmful forms of air pollution, consists of tiny particles called PM 2.5 that can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, increasing the risk of various health problems. To address this, measures such as thinning overgrown forests, controlled burns, and changes in federal air pollution rules to facilitate controlled burns would be helpful. Additionally, initiatives to assist low-income residents in purchasing air purifiers should be expanded.
Given the discrepancy between the Clean Air Act, which focuses on curbing pollution from human activities, and the growing impact of wildfires, there is a need for updated regulations to tackle this increasingly concerning issue. As climate change continues to affect the frequency and intensity of wildfires, it is crucial to develop new strategies to protect air quality and public health.
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