Air pollution is getting worse, thanks to climate change, but a changing climate leads to more air pollution in an unhappy feedback loop. Photo: Shutterstock
Last summer, the skies around New England were hazy with smoke. Wildfires raging in Canada led the EPA to advise most New Englanders, especially those with medical conditions, to stay indoors with the windows shut. It wasn’t how most of us would have chosen to spend a summer afternoon. Nor was it practical advice for those whose work forces them to spend time outdoors.
Unfortunately, the smoky skies of 2023 are no longer an anomaly. Air pollution across the United States is getting worse. Why? Because of our planet’s warming atmosphere. You might say the gains made in air quality in the first half of the 20th century are going up in smoke.
We are now caught in an air pollution feedback loop in which the effect of…