2023-09-06 14:10:08
Heat waves worsen air quality – the World Weather Organization (WMO) in Geneva warns of this. This aspect is often neglected, said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas on Wednesday. According to the Bulletin on Air Quality and Climate Change, wildfires in the United States and heat waves with blown desert dust in Europe have severely affected air quality. “What we experienced in 2023 was even more extreme,” Taalas said.
“July was the hottest month on record, with intense heat in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere and this has continued into August.” He referred to the devastating fires in the Mediterranean region, in Canada and on one of the US islands of Hawaii. “Smoke from wildfires contains a ‘witch’s brew’ of chemicals that not only affects air quality and health, but also harms plants, ecosystems and crops, and it leads to more carbon emissions and therefore more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” said Lorenzo Labrador , one of the authors of the Bulletin.
Some pollutants affect air quality and at the same time contribute to climate change, according to the WMO. That is why climate protection and improving air quality go hand in hand. Parks and other green spaces in cities are important for both. Because of the dense development, the temperature there at night is up to nine degrees higher than in the surrounding countryside, the WMO reported. That affects health. Green spaces might lower the temperature, absorb greenhouse gases and improve air quality.
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