If things don't change soon, the air we breathe could become a growing concern.
A new study out of the University of Waterloo that looked at air quality in the United States has found that if action isn't taken now, air quality will get so bad that air quality alerts will quadruple in the U.S. by 2100. But the findings are relevant to much of North America, including Ontario.
"That's compared to present levels," said Rebecca Saari, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the university. "Most of that rise we saw in the eastern United States, which happens to be the places where we saw higher Black populations and leakier homes on average."
To put it simply, four times the current amount of alerts we get now would result in an extra month's worth.
Other than being harmful to the environment, why is this bad? Saari said climate change is a health problem, and that's something many people don't realize.
"In terms of its air quality, Canada is pretty clean," she said. "But that doesn't mean it's necessarily a low risk problem for us. About 15,000 premature deaths every year are associated with exposure to fine particulate matter. That's the one outdoor pollutant we focused on in our study and outdoor air pollution is associated with over $120 billion in economic damage every year in the country."
In order to properly protect yourself if the air quality continues to worsen, that means going outside less, if you're healthy. This especially applies if you are doing any form of vigorous activity.
That could be even more restrictive for those with lung issues, but that's determined by your healthcare provider on how you manage that.
"The advice would be to shift that vigorous activity to a different time or place with less polluted air," she said. "The effectiveness of doing something like moving inside to protect yourself depends on the quality of that indoor environment. If you're going into an indoor environment that's polluted from indoor sources, or that's so leaky that it lets all the outdoor air pollution in, it's not going to help. In fact, it could make things worse."
A recent example is the wildfires in 2023. Those fires brought a lot of smoke towards Ontario, causing multiple alert days and reduced time outside.
Where's the positive in that? Believe it or not, Saari said it's not too late to turn things around. If everyone starts putting their best foot forward now, there could be many benefits that go along with it.
"This study is more of a warning of what could happen or what it means for people if we don't," she said. "If we meet our Paris agreement targets of keeping warming within two degrees centigrade from pre-industrial by the end of the century, then we saw that had significant benefits for people's health, up to about $5,500 per person per year by the end of the century."
Saari said that benefit will apply to everyone. She added the biggest way to prevent this intimidating thought is to reduce emissions and adapt to the changing environment to keep ourselves safe.
If you would like to read the entire report, you can do so here.