{"id":538045,"date":"2026-07-12T18:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538045\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:04:08","slug":"wildfires-kill-long-after-the-flames-have-gone-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538045\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires kill long after the flames have gone | Wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wildfires sweeping across Europe are damaging precious habitats, destroying property and taking people\u2019s lives (Fast-spreading wildfire kills at least 12 in southern Spain, 10 July<\/a>), yet they are even more devastating to human health once the flames have died down because of the huge amount of air pollution they generate.<\/p>\n

As well as releasing carbon dioxide, wildfires also emit huge amounts of black carbon \u2013 often known as soot \u2013 into the atmosphere. Black carbon harms people\u2019s health and is a major cause of the 7.9 million premature deaths annually<\/a> attributed to air pollution. Witness the impact of toxic particles from Canadian wildfires in 2023, which killed 82,000 people<\/a>, with the pollution stretching across Canada, the US and Europe.<\/p>\n

On top of that, black carbon is one of the super-pollutants responsible for nearly half of current global warming, creating a vicious circle where each wildfire damages our health and makes future wildfires more likely.<\/p>\n

The good news is that we know how to break the cycle<\/a>. Better fire prevention, early warning systems and tighter regulation of super-pollutants like black carbon are all essential. As is supporting local authorities to integrate forest fire management into their air-quality plans, so there can be much faster and more comprehensive emergency responses.
Jane Burston
CEO, Clean Air Fund <\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wildfires sweeping across Europe are damaging precious habitats, destroying property and taking people\u2019s lives (Fast-spreading wildfire kills…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-538045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}