WASHINGTON: Climate-driven wildfires are reversing decades of air pollution progress across North America according to a new study released Thursday.
The Air Quality Life Index annual report reveals the United States and Canada experienced the sharpest pollution increases globally due to record-breaking wildfires supercharged by climate change.
Michael Greenstone, an economics professor at the University of Chicago who co-created the index, emphasised the severity of particulate matter pollution.
“I just don’t think this can be repeated enough: particulate matter remains the greatest external threat to human health on the planet, period,“ he told AFP.
“It’s worse than tobacco smoke. It’s worse than child and maternal malnutrition. It’s worse than road accidents. It’s worse than HIV-AIDS, worse than anything in terms of losses.”
Canada’s catastrophic 2023 wildfire season drove a more than 50% rise in particulate levels compared to 2022, while the United States saw a 20% increase.
The trend is likely to have continued as both countries face intensifying wildfire seasons driven by warming temperatures and drought fueled by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
“The very surprising finding to me is that in parts of the world, certainly Canada, certainly the US and it looks like parts of Europe as well, air pollution is like the zombie that we thought we had killed, and now it’s back,“ said Greenstone.
More than half of Canadians breathed air with pollution above their national standard of 8.8 micrograms per cubic meter, a dramatic shift from less than five percent in the previous five years.
The hardest-hit regions were provinces of Northwest Territories, British Columbia, and Alberta, where particulate pollution levels rivaled those of Bolivia and Honduras, shortening lifespans by two years.
Globally, fine particulate levels were up from 23.7 micrograms per cubic meter in 2022 to 24.1 in 2023, nearly five times greater than the World Health Organization guideline of five.
Latin America saw its highest level since 1998, with Bolivia the worst affected country.
In South Asia, the world’s most polluted zone, pollution increased by 2.8%, while China saw a small rebound of 2.8% after a decade of steady declines.
There were some bright spots: within the European Union, particulate concentrations fell by 6%, while in Central and West Africa, they dropped by 8%. – AFP
