UN: Heat waves generate “diabolical potion” of pollutants

The heat waves, more intense and frequent due to climate changegenerate a “devil potion” of contaminants that threatens humans and all living beings, warned on Wednesday the UN.

The layers of smoke caused by the fires that covered Athens and New York are the most visible part of the air pollution caused by heat waves, but in reality they unleash a series of chemical processes that are much more dangerous for health.

“Heat waves deteriorate air quality, with repercussions for human health, ecosystems, agriculture and our daily lives,” said the secretary of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Petteri Taalas, at the presentation of the bulletin on air quality and climate.

A recent study by the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago (EPIC) established that fine particle pollution –emitted by motor vehicles, industry, and fires– represents “the greatest external threat to public health” world.

Climate change and air quality “they go hand in hand and must be fought together to break this vicious circle”, said the head of the WMO, noting that although the report deals with the data of 2022, “What we see in 2023 is even more extreme.”

Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heat waves, and this trend will continue in the future.

The European Copernicus Observatory announced on Wednesday that global average temperatures during the three months of the boreal summer (June-July-August) were the highest on record.

There is a growing scientific consensus that heat waves will increase the risk and severity of forest fires, the WMO stressed.

“Heat waves and wildfires are closely related. Smoke from wildfires contains a devilish potion of chemicals that not only affects air quality and health, but also harms plants, ecosystems, and crops — and leads to more carbon emissions and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” declared Lorenzo Labrador, author of the WMO bulletin.

Dangerous relationships

Although climate change and air pollutants (such as ozone, volatile organic compounds, or aerosols) follow different stages, the two are related.

“Air quality and climate are interconnected because the chemical compounds that affect them are related, because the substances responsible for climate change and air quality degradation are often emitted from the same sources, and because changes in one lead to inevitably changes in the other”, WMO stressed.

The organization explains that, in 2022, the long heat wave that shook Europe brought an increase in the concentrations of particles and tropospheric ozone (just above the Earth’s surface).

And the concentrations exceeded the level recommended by the WHO in most of the European continent.

During the second half of August 2022, significant masses of desert dust occurred in the Mediterranean and Europe.

“The coincidence of elevated temperatures and elevated amounts of aerosols, and particle content, affected human health and well-being,” the WMO noted.

Ozone concentration also reduces the number and quality of subsistence crop yields.

“Globally, crop losses due to ozone are 4.4 to 12.4% on average for basic subsistence crops, wheat and soybean losses can reach between 15 and 30% in the main agricultural areas of Indian and Chinese”according to the bulletin.

Source: AFP