The scale of forest fires in Canada last year was gigantic: as much as 15 million hectares burned, and the area covered by the fire was more than seven times larger than the average for the year. More than one and a half times as much as the total area of forests in Poland burned. Scientists have calculated that this was associated with huge emissions gases greenhouse.
In a scientific publication in the magazine “Nature“scientists from NASA calculate that the fires emitted 647 million tons of CO2. If counted as a separate country, they would be among the 10 largest CO2 emitters in the world. For comparison: Canada's total CO2 emissions in 2022 were 580 million tons, and Polish – 320 million tons. Clouds of gases emitted by burning forests hovered over much of the continent, as seen in the NASA visualization below:
Man is driving climate change
Although these fires have led to massive carbon dioxide emissions coalhumans are responsible for the emissions of gases that heat our planet.
First, scientists have determined that our own global warming is contributing to such fires. Hot, dry weather has had an impact on the scale and spread of fires in Canada—last year was the hottest and driest in decades. Researchers They calculatedthat last year's fires were at least twice as likely and several dozen percent stronger due to the effects of climate change.
Second, the main source of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere remains our burning of coal, oil, and gas. Emissions from wildfires in Canada accounted for about 2 percent of all emissions in 2023. On the one hand, that's a huge portion for a single source, but on the other hand, it's incomparably less than emissions from fossil fuels, which make up the vast majority.
NASA scientists also point out the huge difference between carbon dioxide emissions from fires and from burning forests. Carbon from fires was locked up in trees and soil by plants – so when the forest grows back, the CO2 will “go back” to where it was emitted. However, this will take decades or more, and during this time the carbon dioxide will circulate in the atmosphere and heat the Earth.
However, coal from oil, gas or hard coal it was tied up there not for hundreds of years, but for millions of years. When we burn fossil fuels, there is no chance that this carbon will naturally “go back underground” in the foreseeable future. From a human perspective, emissions from burning fossil fuels are “forever”. Therefore, to stop climate change – which will cause more of these fires – we must move away from burning coal, oil and gas as soon as possible.
If that fails, global warming will bring more fires and droughts, and Canada's giant forests will burn more often and more intensely, further fueling warming.