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Summer air quality alerts will become routine in U.S. without action: UWaterloo study
The study projects a seven-fold increase in summer air quality alerts for sensitive groups, adding 28 days by 2100 if climate change remains unmitigated, researchers say.
- A new University of Waterloo study published this month in Environmental Science and Technology suggests one in three Americans could breathe unhealthy summer air by 2100, a seven-fold increase compared to the turn of this century.
- Two key pollutants, ozone and PM2.5, drive this deterioration on hotter days; researchers modeled these risks under three scenarios ranging from temperature caps to unmitigated warming.
- Unmitigated climate change could add an average of 28 alert days for sensitive groups by 2100, creating $52 billion in economic costs, with people 65 and older shouldering the bulk of the health burden.
- Rebecca Saari, a Canada Research Chair, said staying indoors cannot compensate for rising risks, emphasizing that "we need attention on longer-term protective adaptations" like improving indoor air filtration.
- California and the eastern United States face the sharpest rise in alerts, potentially gaining two months of additional warnings for sensitive groups annually, though the study excludes wildfire smoke expected to worsen.
25 Articles
25 Articles
By 2100, climate change could make unhealthy air routine for 100 million Americans
New modeling shows almost one in three Americans will routinely breathe air considered unhealthy for sensitive people by the year 2100 due to climate change, a seven-fold increase compared to the turn of the century.
The Toronto Star
Summer air quality alerts will become routine in U.S. without action: UWaterloo study
A new study out of the University of Waterloo is underlining how North American air quality could deteriorate by the end of the century unless efforts are taken to fight
Summer air quality alerts will become routine in U.S. without action: UWaterloo study – 105.9 The Region
A new study out of the University of Waterloo is underlining how North American air quality could deteriorate by the end of the century unless efforts are taken to fight climate change. The study, which homes in on the United States, suggests one in three Americans could be breathing summer air considered unhealthy for sensitive groups by 2100, a seven-fold increase compared to the turn of this century. In that worst-case scenario, the study sug…
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