US faces wildfire death toll surge in next 25 years, researchers warn

A new research study has warned of growing impacts of wildfires as tens of thousands people are expected to die from wildfires across the US in the coming two decades.

As per study, around 70,000 deaths are projected to rise from 40,000 by mid-century, demonstrating 70 percent increase.

Among all the US states, western one will be severely affected. Specifically, California will witness the surge in the death toll at 5,060 followed by New York which is expected to have the second-highest number with 1,810 deaths.

According to Minghao Qiu, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University in New York, “There are larger increases on the West Coast, but there’s also long-range transport of wildfire smoke across the country, including massive recent smoke events in the eastern and midwestern U.S. from Canadian fires.”

In recent years, the threats of smoke exposure have increased across the eastern US states, caused by the movement of smoke from western Canadian wildfires.

As a result, skies over New York have been turned into foreboding burnt orange.

The impacts of wildfires smoke are associated with the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, skin cancer, dementia, and lung cancer by inhaling and exposing to PM 2.5.

Marshall Burke, a professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, told The New York Times, “These are projections. They are not what’s going to happen, necessarily. But what happens is a choice, and so these don’t have to be an inevitability.”