These days, a sweltering heat wave has gripped the entire planet. The latest summer sighting in the northern hemisphere was in the western United States. Extreme heat has been delivered to North America, Asia, and Europe.

The UN claims that in recent years, heat waves and forest fires have both increased in frequency and intensity. Climate change is to blame for this. Additionally, they are endangering both ecosystems and human health while degrading the air we breathe.

According to a new assessment by the World Meteorological Organization, the connection between pollution and climate change will have an impact on hundreds of millions of people over the course of the next century, and immediate action is required to prevent the harm (WMO).

These days, a sweltering heat wave has gripped the entire planet. The latest summer sighting in the northern hemisphere was in the western United States. Extreme heat has been delivered to North America, Asia, and Europe.

The UN claims that in recent years, heat waves and forest fires have both increased in frequency and intensity. Climate change is to blame for this. Additionally, they are endangering both ecosystems and human health while degrading the air we breathe.

According to a new assessment by the World Meteorological Organization, the connection between pollution and climate change will have an impact on hundreds of millions of people over the course of the next century, and immediate action is required to prevent the harm (WMO).

A glimpse into the future

Due to fewer fires in savannahs and grasslands, the overall area burnt globally during the past two decades has decreased. But according to the WMO, there is a rise in flames in several places, including western North America, the Amazon, and Australia.

A warmer temperature can result in more pollutants and lower air quality in addition to forest fires. Taalas warned that "this is a taste of the future" by pointing out that the extreme heat waves that have plagued Europe and China this year, together with steady, high atmospheric conditions, sunlight, and low wind speeds, had been "conducive to high levels of pollution."

He predicted that heat waves will become more frequent, intense, and prolonged. This might result in even poorer air quality. The term "climate penalty" relates to this phenomena, which describes how climate change accelerates the generation of ground-level ozone, which has a detrimental effect on air quality.

Ozone protects against cancer-causing UV light in the stratosphere, but it is extremely harmful to human health when it is closer to the earth.

According to WMO head scientist Lorenzo Labrador, if emission levels stay high, this climate penalty is anticipated to be responsible for "one-fifth of the increase in surface ozone concentration." A fourth of the world's population lives in Asia, where the majority of this rise would take place, he cautioned.

A worldwide carbon-neutral scenario would prevent future extreme episodes of ozone air pollution, the WMO emphasized in its plea for action. Because chemicals that affect air quality are typically released at the same time as greenhouse gases, the paper makes the connection between air quality and climate. According to the paper, "Changes in one necessarily lead to changes in the other."

 

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