Wildfires
Research has shown that human-caused global warming is creating warmer and drier conditions that are leading to a longer and more active wildfire season. Wildfires burn the forests we rely on to act as carbon sinks, and when trees burn they actually end up emitting carbon. Uncontrolled fires can be deadly and wildfire smoke poses a health risk.
Read a Round-up of the headlines:
“With climate change triggering droughts and industry clearing forests, the number of extreme wildfires is expected to increase 30% within the next 28 years. These industries are now scorching environments that were not prone to burning in the past, such as the Arctic's tundra and the Amazon rainforest.”
Reuters, Extreme wildfires are here to stay - and multiply
“Wildfires release carbon emissions that affect climate and drive climate change-related events that contribute to even more wildfires…To put the carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires into perspective, September 2020 data from the Global Fire Emissions Database show that California wildfires in 2020 generated more than 91 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s roughly 30 million metric tons more carbon dioxide emissions than the state emits annually from power production.”
NASA, The Climate Connections of a Record Fire Year in the U.S. West
“We must demand that corporations and governments end the use of fossil fuels to halt the global heating that fuels wildfires. We must transition to a green and just recovery powered by clean energy. We must protect and restore ecosystems that are more resilient to fires and stop once and for all the use of fires to clear land for commodity-driven agriculture that destroys our planet for corporate greed.”
Greenpeace International, Prevent uncontrollable global fires
“Australia’s bushfire season of 2019 to 2020 was one of the worst on record for the country, scorching millions of acres, killing at least 33 people and releasing more than a million tons of smoke into the atmosphere. Research later revealed that the smoke had eaten away at the ozone layer—the Earth’s protective shield against the sun’s ultraviolet rays. But exactly how that happened remained unclear.
Now, in a new study published last week in Nature, researchers found that particles from wildfire smoke can set off chemical reactions in the atmosphere that erode its ozone.”
Smithsonian Magazine, Here's How Wildfires Can Destroy the Ozone Layer
Carbon emissions from wildfires in boreal forests, the earth’s largest land biome and a significant carbon sink, spiked higher in 2021 than in any of the last 20 years, according to new research…
Overall, wildfire emissions are increasing. In 2021, however, fires in boreal forests spewed an “abnormally vast amount of carbon,” releasing 150 percent of their annual average from the preceding two decades, the study published earlier this month in the journal Science said. That’s twice what global aviation emitted that year, said author Steven Davis, a professor of earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, in a press release.
Wildfire emissions feed into a detrimental climate feedback loop, according to the study’s authors, with the greenhouse gases they add to the atmosphere contributing to climate change, which fosters conditions for more frequent and extreme wildfires.
“The boreal region is so important because it contains such a huge amount of carbon,” said Yang Chen, an assistant researcher at UC Irvine and one of the study’s authors. “The fire impact on this carbon releasing could be very significant.’”
Inside Climate News, Wildfires in Northern Forests Broke Carbon Emissions Records in 2021
“In addition to gaseous pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds that act as irritants, wildfire smoke contains microscopic particles. These particles can irritate the eyes and respiratory tract, cause reduced lung function and tax the heart. People living with chronic lung conditions that make it difficult to breathe -- such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and COPD -- are particularly vulnerable to the adverse health effects of wildfire smoke. Air that has been polluted with wildfire smoke also poses a health risk to infants, children, older adults and pregnant women.”
UCLA Health, Wildfire smoke dangerous to those with lung conditions
More reading:
Washington Post, The health risks of wildfire smoke
NY Times, Fires Are Intensifying. Here’s How to Protect Your Health.