In Colorado and much of the West, wildfire season has arrived.

Near the Colorado-Utah border, the Snyder fire has burned through more than 30,000 acres. Tragically, three brave firefighters lost their lives while trying to keep communities safe. Meanwhile, a wildfire near Rye has already prompted emergency evacuations, as counties across Colorado brace for weather conditions that could fuel more dangerous fire behavior.

When those of us in the West talk about this season, we often talk about the flames themselves: the homes lost, the acres burned, the forests transformed. Those are real and devastating harms. But there’s a new reality that has emerged as wildfire seasons worsen, and it should demand more attention: wildfire smoke as the climate risk we breathe.

Image

As an atmospheric scientist, I study how pollution moves through the air and how it changes the atmosphere around us. Numerous studies show that wildfire smoke spreads beyond the communities directly impacted by a given fire, and it has far-reaching health consequences.

The impacts can reach far distances, like the smoke from the Canadian wildfires last summer that reached the Upper Midwest and East Coast. These hazardous conditions mean that people with asthma, heart disease, and other health conditions can face serious risks from smoke exposure that do not always end when the sky clears.

Children are particularly at risk. Between 2008 and 2012, an estimated 7.4 million children per year were exposed to wildfire smoke, with those figures likely being dramatically higher in more recent years as fires have grown. The extremely tiny particles in wildfire smoke go so deep into the lungs that they can enter the bloodstream. There is emerging evidence that wildfire smoke particles may have a greater impact on children’s respiratory health than fine particles from other sources of air pollution.

Wildfire smoke highlights an important reality about climate change: It is not only a disaster for the communities closest to the flames, but it also becomes a dangerous source of air pollution for families and communities hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

Image

The United States has made substantial progress in reducing pollution from vehicles, power plants and industrial sources. Independent scientific research has shown that reductions in fine particle pollution, like the one found in exhaust from vehicles and wildland fire smoke, has led to improvements in average life expectancy at birth.

The growth of wildfire season and wildfire smoke, however, threatens to erode some of those gains. As hotter and drier conditions increase the likelihood of severe fire weather in many parts of the West, smoke is becoming a more frequent source of unhealthy air.

To address that challenge, public health officials and lawmakers need to start treating wildfires as a public health issue. In practice, that means creating emergency planning that includes guidance on smoke exposure, reliable air quality information, and protections for people who work outdoors. Clean indoor air should also be part of climate adaptation planning, with facilities like schools, libraries, community centers, childcare centers, public housing, and workplaces having the ability to serve as safer indoor environments during smoke events when equipped with effective filtration systems.

Climate preparedness is important, but so is tackling the root causes of a warming climate. Efforts to limit heat-trapping emissions remain an important part of reducing future wildfire risk. Climate solutions include expanding renewable and affordable energy sources such as wind and solar power, and improving energy-saving measures in buildings and transportation. Leveraging nature-based solutions is also key, like protecting and conserving natural ecosystems that help store carbon.

None of these solutions will stop every fire. Wildfire has always been – and always will be – part of many Western landscapes. But the scale, intensity, and reach of today’s wildfire seasons demand a broader response.

The fires may burn in the West, but the smoke does not respect state or international boundaries. As wildfire season becomes longer and more dangerous, our response must match the reality we now face.