Wildfires, Global Climate Change and Human Health

The world has already observed many devastat- ing effects of human-induced climate change.1 A vivid manifestation is the several large wildfires that have occurred recently — in some cases, fires of unprecedented scale and duration — in- cluding wildfires in Australia in 2019 to 2020, the Amazon rainforest in Brazil in 2019 and 2020, the western United States in 2018 and 2020, and British Columbia, Canada, in 2017 and 2018. Since August of this year, record-breaking wild- fires have burned 2.7 million hectares (as of September 18, 2020) along the West Coast of the United States, killing more than 30 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.2 Robust projections indicate that the risk of wildfires will continue to increase in most areas of the world as climate change worsens3-6 and that the fires will increase excess mortality and morbidity from burns, wildfire smoke, and mental health effects.7-9