As climate warms, Michigan can expect more smoke and unsafe air - MLive.com

As climate warms, Michigan can expect more smoke and unsafe air - mlive.com

More smoke from wildfires and unsafe air conditions can be expected in Michigan and across the Great Lakes region as the climate continues to warm.

Experts say hotter temperatures and more frequent droughts fueled by climate change will exacerbate wildfire risks and lead to larger and more frequent blazes across all North America. Those raging wildfires will put increasing amounts of smoke into the atmosphere and cause dangerous air pollution that will billow across the continent and around the world.

That means more frequent unhealthy air conditions will become the latest new normal in the accelerating climate crisis. Experts say these recent days of wildfire smoke from Canada blanketing the U.S. West, Midwest, and Northeast regions is expected to be an indicator of more to come.

“This is something we’re going to see more of in the future,” said Paige Fischer, wildfire expert and associate professor at University of Michigan.

“We need to be prepared not just for the wildfires in the place where there are forests that could burn, but we have to be prepared for the smoke because that’s just an inevitable effect of wildfires.”

Fischer studies human adaptation to environmental changes, specifically increasing wildfire risk; she just returned to Michigan from a research trip to study wildfire in Chile.

The scientist said air pollution caused by wildfire smoke wafting great distances from the actual fires has become a global crisis requiring adaptation on a larger scale.

“Up until recently, people in the United States just thought it’s a western problem. Some even think, ‘Oh, it’s just people who build their weekend houses up in the mountains.’ But there’s a lot of vulnerable people and people who don’t have a choice about where they want to live, where they can live out there, and also outside of the west,” Fischer said.

As climate change continues to drive temperatures up and disrupt rainfall patterns, experts say more of these types of intense and harmful wildfire seasons can be expected.

“Climate change is having a significant impact on the duration of the length of the wildfire season, the severity of these fires, and the frequency of wildfires, and they’re happening in every part of the world except for Antarctica. It’s an increase globally,” said Sarah Vogel, air pollution expert and senior vice president of healthy communities at the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental advocacy nonprofit.

“When they burn hot like that, and they’re so powerful, the smoke can go so high up in the atmosphere and that’s where you see the smoke traveling just enormous distances.”

Both Detroit and New York City were ranked among the most polluted cities in the world on June 7, 2023, because of smoke from wildfires burning across Canada.

“There’s black carbon, there’s nitrous oxide that those particles can mix in the air with, sunlight and other aerosols in the air to create other air pollutants that are concerns,” Vogel said.

So even after drifting long distances across the continent, wildfire smoke remains a dangerous mix of particulate matter. In fact, smoke grows more harmful the longer it wafts through the skies.

It’s known the chemistry of wildfire smoke changes; the longer it’s in the atmosphere, the more it will be altered by ultraviolet light, said Christopher T. Migliaccio, a toxicologist at the University of Montana who studies the impact of wildfire smoke on human health.

He said researchers found a higher level of oxidants and free radicals the longer the smoke is in the air. Though specific health effects aren’t yet clear, indications are more exposure leads to greater health effects.

It may come down to dose, Migliaccio said.

“Chances are, if you’re a healthy individual, going for a bike ride or a hike in light haze won’t be a big deal, and your body will be able to recover,” he said. “If you’re doing that every day for a month in wildfire smoke, however, that raises more concerns.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says exposure to particulate matter can affect both the lungs and heart, and scientific studies have shown particle pollution exposure is linked to premature death in people with heart or lung diseases, nonfatal heart attacks, irregular heartbeat, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, and increased respiratory symptoms like coughing.

“The science around the health effects of air pollution is incredibly strong. We know that particulate matter can cause lung disease, can cause cardiovascular disease at pretty low level. This can cause low birth weight of babies, which is not a good outcome. It can cause asthma and exacerbate asthma,” Vogel said.

Yet she said a benefit of this week’s widespread wildfire smoke pollution is that it’s a visible reminder of the effects of climate change. It should be a significant wake-up call for urgent climate action, Vogel argued.

“It’s that sense of we really are all in this together,” she said. “There’s no other planet we all get to jump to. We’ve really got to get in this together. This is the moment.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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