Bdbusinessdaily.com – The World Meteorological Organization released its latest annual Air Quality and Climate Bulletin on 7 September, delivering a stark assessment: the microscopic pollutants released by intensifying wildfires and prolonged heatwaves are eroding decades of progress made to clean the air in industrialized regions. The agency, which serves as the United Nations’ body for weather and climate science, framed the issue as inseparable from climate change itself, noting that scientists attribute the rising frequency and severity of both heat extremes and large-scale fires to a warming planet.

At the heart of the bulletin is particulate matter known as PM2.5 — particles and liquid droplets smaller than 2.5 micrometres across. Because of their minute size, these particles bypass the body’s natural filtration, lodging deep in lung tissue and entering the bloodstream. They originate from fossil-fuel combustion, agricultural burning, household heating, vehicle exhaust, dust storms, and, increasingly, from wildfires.…