Climate change is real and it will soon make living in the US more unbearable than it was before.
A new study from the First Street Foundation, a non-profit environmental group in New York, categorized air quality in the US as "atrocious."
The foundation noted a trend in "climate penalty" in the past years as worsening climate conditions undo federal and local efforts to improve air quality in the country, landing back to where it was in the mid-2000s.
According to the foundation, at least 83 million people, or 25% of the population, are annually exposed to "unhealthy" air.
Among those that are at risk, more than 10 million are living under "very unhealthy" levels of air quality with an estimated 1.5 million of that population exposed to "hazardous" air.
Many of these areas with poor air quality are found in California, particularly in Central Valley and San Francisco.
What's worse, the foundation expects the number of people exposed to double "over the next 30 years."
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More Climate-Related Natural Disasters Expected to Come
Many negative effects of climate change on the atmosphere have already been felt throughout the past years as more wildfires, extreme heat, and drought have been recorded in the past years.
These natural disasters are known to increase specific pollutants that cause health hazards when it concentrated in a single region.
The West, where wildfires often ignite, is the most vulnerable to worse air quality with "Maroon days" being 381% more occurring.
"Maroon Days" refer to the worst air quality alert under the Air Quality Index where everyone is more likely affected by polluting particles in the air.
Subsequent air quality alerts also recorded a significant increase as healthier air quality days became much rarer.
EPA to Roll Out New Policies to Curb Air Pollution
It does not mean, however, that the government has been inactive in addressing a significant issue that poses a threat to the population's health.
A few days before the First Street report came out, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a key update to its national air quality standard to better determine the affected population of poor air quality.
The newest standard, which was unchanged for over a decade, changes the limit of fine particle pollution from 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 9 micrograms.
This means more cities would be included in government efforts to find possible ways to address the growing issue.
The EPA expects the new standard limit will help prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and nearly 800,000 asthma cases caused by "dangerous air pollution."
