Climate change keeps making wildfires and smoke worse. Scientists call it the ‘new abnormal’
Associated PressIt was a smell that invoked a memory. As Earth’s climate continues to change from heat-trapping gases spewed into the air, ever fewer people are out of reach from the billowing and deadly fingers of wildfire smoke, scientists say. It’s an ever-moving baseline of worse and worse.” It’s so bad that perhaps the term “wildfire” also needs to be rethought, suggested Woodwell Climate Research Center senior scientist Jennifer Francis. “We’re seeing, especially across the West, big increases in smoke exposure and reduction in air quality that are attributable to increase in fire activity.” FILE - The Statue of Liberty, covered in a haze-filled sky, is photographed from the Staten Island Ferry, June 7, 2023, in New York. “In the longer term, climate change and unfortunately wildfire smoke is not going away because we really haven’t done that much quick enough to make a difference,” Avol said, adding that while people can take steps like masking up or using air filters to try to protect themselves, we are ultimately “behind the curve here in terms of responding to it.” ___ Borenstein reported from Washington and Walling from Chicago.
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