Global warming is causing wildfires to burn more of the earth, possibly killing 12,000 more people a year from smoke inhalation, a new study has found.
Global warming is increasing the risk of death from wildfire smoke, especially in the boreal forests of Australia, South America, Europe and Asia, a modeling study has found.
Another study found that between 2003 and 2019, global warming increased the amount of area burned on the planet by about 16%, but other human activities, such as clearing forests and savannah for roads and agriculture, increased the total area burned. has decreased by 19%.
Both studies, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, determined the impact of increasing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere on wildfires compared to other human actions such as land clearing.
The study, led by Dr. Chae-young Park of Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies, found that in the 2010s, nearly 100% of the population died each year from inhaling smoke from fires, which contains particulates known as PM2.5, which can penetrate the lungs. It is estimated that 10,000 people died. And blood flow.
It is difficult to understand how global warming is contributing to these deaths. This is because rising temperatures and falling humidity increase the risk of fires, while other direct human interventions, such as forest and savannah fragmentation, reduce the area available for fires and fire suppression. Spread of fire.
To overcome this problem, the researchers looked at three models of Earth’s vegetation and fire under today’s climate conditions and compared them with a model in which the effects of modern climate change were removed.
Although the results were mixed, the authors from eight countries, including the UK, US, Germany and China, all found that global warming is causing an increase in deaths from breathing PM2.5 from bushfires. discovered.
Rising temperatures were the main factor in increasing fire danger in some regions, while lower humidity was the culprit in others.
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The authors said the health effects of wildfires may be underestimated because “the toxicity of fire-generated particles” is more severe than from other sources.
Professor Hilary Bambrick, director of the Australian National University’s National Center for Epidemiology and Population Health, said millions of Australians were exposed to dangerous levels of long-term smoke pollution during the Black Summer fires of 2019 and 2020. said.
“This caused hundreds of deaths at the time and is likely to have long-term health consequences for many,” said Bambrick, who was not involved in the study.
“This study shows that climate change is just one of many factors that negatively impact our health, and understanding these impacts can help us better plan for the future. ”
Another study led by British and Belgian scientists found that global warming is increasing the risk of wildfires, particularly in the savannahs of Australia, Siberia and Africa.
Seppe Lampe of the Vrije Universiteit Bruxelles said that while human activities that alter the landscape are contributing to a reduction in the amount of burnt area of the planet, “the effects of climate change continue to increase.”
Professor Wim Thierry, co-author of the VUB study, said the rate of increase in area burned due to climate change was “increasing year by year”.
