Data from the 2023 Report of the Lancet Countdown also showed that from 2018 to 2022, the average Canadian experienced more than two days of exposure to “very high or extremely high wildfire danger” — a 116 per cent increase relative to a 2003-07 historical baseline. That baseline was also used to calculate the wildfire smoke exposure data.
“While the effects of climate change have been felt over the last many years, 2023 has been the worst on record, showcasing the effects of a warming climate and what we can expect for the future if we don’t start to reduce our greenhouse gases now,” Kathleen Ross, president of the CMA, told Global News.“We’ve certainly seen rising health impacts related to climate change, and it’s time now that we actually focus in and start framing the climate change impacts as a human health crisi