The World Meteorological Organization has warned that hundreds of millions of people will be affected by the deterioration of air quality projected for this century, due to the increase in fires and the intensity and duration of heat waves.
In its annual air quality bulletin, issued on the occasion of the International Day of Clean Air, the United Nations agency warned that the increase in polluting particles, linked to climate change, can have consequences as serious as global warming.
As global temperatures rise, wildfires and related air pollution are expected to increase, even in a low-emissions scenario,” with consequences for human health and ecosystems, said the organization’s secretary-general, Petteri. Taalas.
The paper, based on data from 2021, shows sharp increases (above 30 micrograms per cubic meter of air) in particulate matter concentrations in areas that have experienced severe fires in the last year, especially in Siberia (northern Russia), Canada and the western United States, compared to the average for the period 2003-2020.
Measurements also recorded a higher-than-average increase in emissions from activities such as heat generation and agricultural stubble burning, especially in the winter months in India and other parts of South Asia.
In western North America, wildfires between May and September in some areas caused additional concentrations of up to 20 micrograms of PM2.5 pollutants (the most harmful to health) per cubic meter, four times the level recommended by the Organization World Health Organization (WHO). ).
It is feared that this year there are similar increases in the concentration of particulate pollutants in regions such as Europe and China, hit by heat waves and forest fires, which in the European case are known to have caused the emission of 6.4 megatons of carbon.
The observed data “is an anticipation of the future, as the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves are expected to increase further, which could further worsen air quality,” Taalas said.
Experts refer to this global warming-related deterioration in air quality as a “climate penalty,” and the World Meteorological Organization expects the most targeted regions to be located in parts of Asia, where a quarter of the population lives. world.
Climate change may exacerbate episodes of surface ozone pollution, resulting in adverse health effects for hundreds of millions of people.
Air quality and climate are intertwined, although pollution phenomena tend to be sudden and global warming is more gradual and long-term, recalls the annual bulletin.
For example, him The burning of fossil fuels is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions.main greenhouse gas, at the same time that it emits nitrogen oxide, precursor of ozone and of the most harmful particles.
At the same time, air quality can harm the health of ecosystems, as air pollutants can deposit concentrations of nitrogen, sulfur, and ozone on the earth’s surface that can affect water, biodiversity, carbon storage, or ecosystems. crops. .
Despite the predictions, the same document highlights that the the area burned annually has shown a decreasing trend in the last two decadesas a consequence of a lower number of fires in savannahs and grasslands, although there have been notable increases in some regions, such as North America, the Amazon and Australia.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has already warned in recent reports that climate change could increase the severity and frequency of “catastrophic wildfires” such as those in Australia in 2019 or the western United States in 2020-21.
Source: Observadora
