Declining Air Quality

Wildfires are both a symptom and an amplifier of climate change. This dynamic became a vivid reality in 2023 as Canada's unprecedented wildfires burned thick layers of peat, releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and causing more air quality alerts in major U.S. cities over two months than in the past 23 years. The smoke from wildfires has slowed or reversed trends in steady improvements in U.S. air quality following the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1990.

While this particular crisis drew international attention, poor air quality has been a major public health issue for decades, especially in underserved communities. In 2023, NOAA, NASA, and a group of leading universities launched a project to better track the sources of major air pollutants. Private foundations are stepping up global efforts like the Bloomberg Philanthropies-led Breathe Cities initiative, which seeks to provide critical support, monitoring, and capacity-building tools for communities grappling with air quality challenges. As temperatures warm in regions like northern Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, the potential for hotter and more intense wildfires that, in turn, release more carbon into the atmosphere also increases.

Planners should be aware of this dynamic, consult and collaborate with experts, and learn more about emerging monitoring tools that will be critical to adapting to these challenges in the future.