The United States and Canada endured the planet’s biggest air pollution surge in 2023 — an upswing driven by the northern neighbor’s worst wildfire season on record, a new report has found.

Canada alone experienced its highest levels of fine particulate pollution (PM 2.5) in at least 26 years, with more than half of residents exposed to contaminant concentrations that surpassed national standards, according to the report.

The data, released as an annual update to the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index, showed that if these levels persist, people’s lives could be cut short by more than two years, relative to air quality conditions that met World Health Organization guidelines.

“When fossil fuels are burned, they cause particulate air pollution right away,” Michael Greenstone, an........

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