Climate Change Is Increasing Simultaneous Exposure to Heat Waves and Wildfire Smoke — SkimNews
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- A new study published in Science Advances found that more than 1 billion people per year faced simultaneous exposure to heat waves and fire pollution during the 2010–2019 decade.
- The 2010–2019 figure represents a sharp jump compared to the preceding decade, the researchers reported.
- The study's authors frame the compound exposure as a growing public health crisis driven by global warming.
Why it matters: More than 1 billion people per year are now being hit by two climate-driven hazards at once — heat and smoke — rather than separately. That compounding effect, newly quantified, changes how public health agencies must coordinate heat advisories with air-quality warnings and deploy cooling and clean-air resources together.
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