WMO Report: We are choking on a “harmful mix of chemicals.” Earth has entered a vicious cycle

– Climate change and air quality cannot be separated. (…) It would be beneficial for the health of our planet, its people and our economies if we recognised this interdependence and acted accordingly, said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett. The report, published on Thursday, was based on data from 2023, but “the trends described in it continued this year, with intense heat and persistent droughts increasing the risk of wildfires and air pollution,” Barrett said in a press release.

The authors of the publication draw attention to the vicious circle of climate change, forest fires and air pollution. These factors have an increasingly negative impact on human health, ecosystems and agriculture.

According to the WMO, air pollution causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths each year and results in high economic and environmental costs.

Scientists argue that the concentration of airborne particulate matter can reduce crop yields by up to 15 percent in heavily polluted areas. The particulate matter reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the leaf surface and physically blocks the leaf stomata, which regulate the exchange of water vapor and carbon dioxide with the atmosphere.

Particulate matter can reduce crop yields in areas where maximizing yields is key to feeding the population. Agriculture itself, the report’s authors noted, contributes significantly to air pollution, including through stubble burning, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and certain farming and harvesting methods.

The report’s authors drew attention to last year’s fires in both hemispheres of the Earth. Among the many causes of forest fires is also climate change, which increases the frequency and intensity of heat waves and prolongs droughts. As a result, the risk of forest fires spreading increases, which in turn strongly affects air quality.

– Forest fire smoke contains a harmful mix of chemicals that not only affects air quality and health, but also destroys plants, ecosystems, crops and leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions, thus increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – said WMO expert Dr. Lorenzo Labrador.

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According to Canada’s National Fire Database, last year, fires burned seven times more forest than the average from 1990 to 2013. The fires in western Canada raged from early May to late September, worsening air quality in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, particularly in New York City. Smoke traveled across the North Atlantic Ocean to southern Greenland and western Europe. It caused cumulative emissions of particulate matter and carbon dioxide that far exceeded the annual average for at least the past 20 years.

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Earlier in January and February 2023, central and southern Chile were hit by forest fires – more than 400 were estimated. High temperatures and winds fanned the flames in an area hit by drought that had lasted more than a decade.

“Simultaneous observations of ozone, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides concentrations in central Chile indicate a dramatic deterioration in air quality caused by intense and long-lasting forest fires, which are becoming more frequent in a warmer climate,” the report's authors said.