Ever wonder why, if wildfires cause so much negative air quality impact, prescribed burning, which also emits a fair amount of pollution, is mentioned as a primary mitigation for wildfires? Aren’t they doing the same thing? The answer is related to magnitude. This 2017 paper collected data on this subject: https://bit.ly/4ctavXS. Wildfires, beyond their risks to life and damage to property, burn hotter and longer (as if years of potential prescribed burns happened all at once, with greater intensity, and more complex chemistry) than prescribed burns generating more pollution per unit of land area, lofting that pollution higher in the atmosphere, and affecting a wider area. Mitigating the human health impact of a prescribed burn is easier, more local, and less disruptive.
