The United States and Canada abolished the growth in the largest air pollution of the planet in 2023 – a new report found that a northern neighbor’s worst wildfares operated by the fire season.
According to the report, Canada alone experienced its highest level of Particulate Pollution (PM 2.5) in at least 26 years, with more than half of the residents highlighted the contaminated concentrations that crossed national standards.
Data released as an annual update to the University of Chicago Air quality life indexIt is shown that if these levels remain, people’s lives can be reduced by more than two years, which is relative to the conditions of air quality that meet the World Health Organization guidelines.
“When fossil fuels are burnt, they immediately cause air pollution,” said Michael Greenstone, a professor of an economics and co-producer of the index of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, immediately causes air pollution, “Michael Greenstone, a professor of an economics of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute University, and co-working, said in a statement.
He said, “There is more forest fire because fossil fuels also lead to high temperatures, and the result is the second wave of air pollution,” he said.
For the US, Greenstone and their colleagues determined that the fire contributed to the amount of air pollution that the country had not seen in more than a decade. Compared to only one year ago, according to data, the level of particulate pollution increased by average by 20 percent.
Canadian Blaze spread to the resulting pollution Visconsin, Illinois, Indian and Ohio and even reached Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Mississippi, shown in the report. Counties in these states, authors found, many in California were converted into the top -10 national pollution hotspots for the first time in five years.
“We are now living with air pollution concentrations that are dangerous ghosts of fossil fuels burnt since the Industrial Revolution,” Greenstone said.
Worldwide, the index determined that air pollution demonstrated a slight increase in 2023. If the planet had to permanently reduce particles pollution to meet global health guidelines, the average person can rely on additional 1.9 years in life expectancy, according to the report.
Greenstone said, “Even countries that have spent in cleaning their air for decades, they cannot escape from these ghosts and small and sick life they distribute,” Greenstone said.
While marking particulate pollution as the “world’s largest external risk for human health of the world”, the authors stressed that its effect on life expectancy is comparable to smokers, more than four times of high alcohol consumption, five times of transportation injuries and six times of HIV/AIDS.
But researchers also said that not all hope is lost, and that people can benefit from getting awareness about breathing air quality through rapidly available data sources. And yet, about 70 percent of the global population lives in areas in which there is a lack of adequate access to such information, the authors said.
Tanushree Ganguly, director of the Air Quality Life Index, has given a statement in the role of air pollution “as a top reason that people are living a low life worldwide.” For example, they emphasized the importance of embracing devices that enable better policy making and provide more information about pollutants who are breathing.
Ganguly said, “Throughout history, countries have developed and developed and improved their air quality.” “Targeting fossil fuels on its sources will improve local air, as well as help to withstand climate change.”
