Warming is leading to even larger wildfires in the western United States, which are becoming a major source of pollution. A new study finds that warming is responsible for nearly half of the particulate matter pollution and two-thirds of the emissions caused by wildfires in the West.
Warming temperatures are leading to larger and more frequent fires, causing hotter, drier weather and more intense droughts. In some parts of the US, fires reach four times just as big, and strike three times more often than before the beginning of this century.
Large fires produce enormous volumes of smoke. During the summer of 2020, a particularly brutal fire year, wildfires became the leading cause of wildfires. leading source particulate pollution in the West, while in California fires that year led to an increase carbon emissions than every power plant in the state combined.
A new study shows that warming has played a larger role in western forests and scrubland than in California's wildlands closer to cities, where humans have long played a role in fueling fires. By studying the amount of smoke produced by fires in different regions, as well as the varying effects of warming in those places, scientists determined how warming affects emissions.
The study found that between 1997 and 2020, warming was responsible for 65 percent of carbon emissions and 49 percent of particulate matter produced by wildfires in the West. conclusions were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lead author said Loretta Mickley of Harvard University: “We hope this work will stimulate efforts to think more deeply about how we manage land and wildfires in the western United States.”
