Wildfire Smoke as a Major Climate Threat

Pollution from fires, worsened by increasing temperatures, may become a leading climate disaster in the United States. If global warming continues at its current pace, wildfire smoke could claim the lives of approximately 70,000 Americans each year by 2050, according to new research.

Marshall Burke, an environmental economist at Stanford University who contributed to the study, emphasized that these findings are among the strongest evidence of the dangers climate change poses to people in the U.S. He noted that the impacts are more significant than previously measured data.

The analysis, published in the journal Nature, estimates that intensified wildfire smoke could result in up to two million deaths over the next three decades. This is the most thorough estimate to date on the potential lethality of wildfire smoke amidst a warming planet.

Researchers utilized around 20 years of death records, along with satellite and ground data on wildfire smoke pollution, to evaluate how exposure influences mortality.

“This paper is a wake-up call for people,” remarked Kai Chen, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, unaffiliated with the study. “It demonstrates that this is a nationwide issue directly tied to climate change.”

In September 2020, wildfire smoke covered Portland, Oregon, as seen in a photograph by Celeste Noche for The New York Times.

In late July, the Trump administration suggested repealing the endangerment finding. This measure, established during the Obama era, scientifically determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and served as the legal foundation for stringent industrial greenhouse gas emissions limits. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are emitted through fossil fuel combustion and trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. Since the industrial revolution, global temperatures have risen by about 1.3 degrees Celsius.