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Line 243: === Effects on environment and climate === Pollution due to a global increase in wildfires has created widespread, long-term impacts on human health.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gao |first1=Yuan |last2=Huang |first2=Wenzhong |last3=Yu |first3=Pei |last4=Xu |first4=Rongbin |last5=Yang |first5=Zhengyu |last6=Gasevic |first6=Danijela |last7=Ye |first7=Tingting |last8=Guo |first8=Yuming |last9=Li |first9=Shanshan |date=March 2023 |title=Long-term impacts of non-occupational wildfire exposure on human health: A systematic review |journal=[[Environmental Pollution (journal)|Environmental Pollution]] |volume=320 |page=121041 |doi=10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121041 |pmid=36639044 |bibcode=2023EPoll.32021041G |s2cid=255695901}}</ref> Due to wildfire emissions, Canada broke its record for annual [[carbon emissions]] in late June.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bennett |first1=Paige |title=Wildfire Emissions in Canada for First Half of 2023 Are Already Worse Than Any Full Year on Record |url=https://www.ecowatch.com/canada-wildfire-emissions-record-2023.html |access-date=June 29, 2023 |agency=Ecowatch |date=June 28, 2023 |archive-date=June 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629154255/https://www.ecowatch.com/canada-wildfire-emissions-record-2023.html |url-status=live}}</ref> As of late August, the wildfires had released 327–355 [[megatonnes]] of [[carbon]]<!-- Note, carbon, not carbon dioxide --> into the atmosphere.<ref name=":33">{{Cite news |last=Lamberink |first=Liny |date=August 28, 2023 |title=N.W.T. fires have released 97 megatonnes of carbon, says European agency — 277 times what its people emit |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-fire-emissions-2023-1.6948761 |access-date=August 31, 2023 |archive-date=August 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831054349/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-fire-emissions-2023-1.6948761 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":34">{{cite web |last1=Freedman |first1=Andrew |title=Canada's wildfire emissions skyrocket as fires spread |url=https://www.axios.com/2023/08/23/canada-wildfires-carbon-emissions |access-date=11 October 2023 |website=Axios |publisher=Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service}}</ref> The emissions from the fires were more than double Canada's planned emissions reductions from 2020–2030.<ref name="e532">{{cite journal | last=Wang | first=Zhe | last2=Wang | first2=Zifa | last3=Zou | first3=Zhiyin | last4=Chen | first4=Xueshun | last5=Wu | first5=Huangjian | last6=Wang | first6=Wending | last7=Su | first7=Hang | last8=Li | first8=Fang | last9=Xu | first9=Wenru | last10=Liu | first10=Zhihua | last11=Zhu | first11=Jiaojun | title=Severe Global Environmental Issues Caused by Canada’s Record-Breaking Wildfires in 2023 | journal=Advances in Atmospheric Sciences | date=2023-11-17 | issn=0256-1530 | doi=10.1007/s00376-023-3241-0 | display-authors=1}}</ref> According to Merritt Turetsky, a [[carbon cycle]] scientist, this is a "vicious cycle" as warming is associated with drier vegetation, drier vegetation ignites more rapidly, [[Greenhouse gas|greenhouse gases]] are released, and greenhouse gases "wind up in the atmosphere, [causing] more warming".<ref name=":34" /> Scientists from the [[World Resources Institute]] and the [[University of Maryland]] estimated the overall emissions as 3.28bn tons (2.98 metric tons) more than fossil fuel emissions of [[Greenhouse gas emissions by India|India]]. According to professor Jacob Bendix, “The loss of that much forest is a very big deal, and very worrisome,” “Although the forest will eventually grow back and sequester carbon in doing so, that is a process that will take decades at a minimum, so that there is a quite substantial lag between addition of atmospheric carbon due to wildfire and the eventual removal of at least some of it by the regrowing forest. So, over the course of those decades, the net impact of the fires is a contribution to climate warming.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Canada’s 2023 wildfires created four times more emissions than planes did last year – report |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/27/canada-2023-wildfires-carbon-emissions |access-date=7 July 2024 |agency=The Guardian |publisher=The Associated Press |date=27 June 2024}}</ref> The fires represented over a quarter of global tree loss in 2023,<ref name="r744">{{cite journal | last=MacCarthy | first=James | last2=Tyukavina | first2=Alexandra | last3=Weisse | first3=Mikaela J | last4=Harris | first4=Nancy | last5=Glen | first5=Erin | title=Extreme wildfires in Canada and their contribution to global loss in tree cover and carbon emissions in 2023 | journal=Global Change Biology | volume=30 | issue=6 | date=2024 | issn=1354-1013 | doi=10.1111/gcb.17392 | page=}}</ref> and the [[Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service]] estimated that === United States === | |||