Tag: wildfires

  • Science & Tech

    Wildfires are much worse than a sign of climate change

    Loretta Mickley, a Harvard wildfire expert, says wildfires are not just a symptom of climate change, but with the increased burning of millenia-old global peat stores, have the potential to worsen warming.

    6–8 minutes
    A wildfire burns on the mountainside in West Kelowna, Canada.
  • Science & Tech

    Fighting fire with fire

    A study found that controlled burns in key areas of the U.S. West could drastically reduce smoke exposure

    4–6 minutes
    Controlled fire.
  • Science & Tech

    In the thick of it

    Scenes of smoke-blanketed Northeast likely to repeat, one expert says. Another offers advice for reducing harm to health.

    3–5 minutes
    Orange haze over Brooklyn Bridge and New York City skyline.
  • Health

    Link between wildfires and COVID cases established

    Researchers have found strong evidence of an association between exposure to fine particulate air pollution from 2020 wildfires in the U.S. and increased risk of COVID-19 cases and deaths in three western states, for up to four weeks after the exposure.

    4–5 minutes
    Wildfire
  • Science & Tech

    ‘Smoke waves’ will affect millions in coming decades

    Wildfires threaten more than land and homes. The smoke they produce contains fine particles (PM2.5) that can poison the air for hundreds of miles. Air pollution from the 2016 Fort McMurray fire in northern Alberta, Canada, sent people as far away as Michigan to the hospital with respiratory illnesses. As wildfires increase in frequency and…

    2–4 minutes