Financial Times: “Wildfire Smoke Threatens to Cloud the ‘Pure Michigan’ Brand”
RFF Fellow Matthew Wibbenmeyer remarks how wildfire smoke can affect quality of life during the summer.
“But Matthew Wibbenmeyer, who studies the economic impact of wildfire smoke at the nonprofit Resources for the Future, tells me he thinks smoke has already impacted patterns of behavior in the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up, and will begin to do so in the Midwest too. ‘Maybe you go to Mackinac in June rather than July, even though it might be colder, but there is less likelihood of smoke,’ he says.
Smoke could also affect where people choose to live. In the Pacific Northwest, he says, people endure long, wet winters for the glories of summer. In the Midwest, we suffer bitter cold for months on end. If we can’t count on blue-sky summers to make up for it, ‘it could affect the overall appeal of living in a place that’s affected by smoke,’ Wibbenmeyer says.”
