air-pollution-from-fires-claim-1-5-mn-lives-annually-study

Around 1.5 million deaths occur due to pollution linked to fires worldwide, and the majority of these deaths happen in developing nations, according to the findings of a new study on Thursday.

 

The death toll is likely to increase in the future as climate change makes wildfires more frequent and intense, reveals the study.

 

The researchers of this study looked at the data on “landscape fires," which include both wildfires that occur through natural and man-made events like burns on farming land.

 

It said approximately 450,000 deaths occurred due to heart illness caused by air pollution between 2000 and 2019.

 

Also, 220,000 deaths occur due to respiratory diseases linked to smoke released in the air by fire.

According to study findings, a total of 1.53 million annual deaths were associated with air pollution from landscape fires.

 

Meanwhile, the study highlights the potential risks posed to developing and underdeveloped nations, as 90 per cent of the deaths were reported in low or middle-income countries, adding nearly 40 per cent of deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

 

The countries that reported the highest death toll were China, DR Congo, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

 

A record amount of illegal burning of farm fields in northern India has been partly blamed for the noxious smog that has recently been choking the capital, New Delhi.

 

The researchers called for urgent action to reduce the death toll from the landscape fires.

 

The disparity between rich and poor nations further highlights "climate injustice," in which those who have contributed the least to global warming suffer from it the most, they added.

 

2024 has somewhat shattered all records by being the hottest year in recorded history; additionally, the world has been battered by climate-linked phenomena like severe droughts, floods, and hurricanes.

 

During the recent COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, developing countries asked the developed world to contribute 1 trillion dollars by 2035 to tackle the climate concern.

 

While the negotiators only managed to convince the rich to contribute around 250-300 billion dollars. Experts, meanwhile, said that the summit failed to achieve the desired results.