647 million tons of carbon dioxide. That’s how much Canada’s giant wildfires released during last year’s fire season, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature.
The researchers behind the study have compared the figure with the emissions from the use of fossil fuels in different countries and concluded that only China, the USA and India accounted for greater emissions during the year.
During the same period, Sweden’s territorial emissions amounted to 44.2 million tonnes calculated in carbon dioxide equivalents, according to preliminary figures from The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The forest fires’ emissions were thus almost 15 times higher.
“The only solution is to fight climate change”
Natascha Kljun, professor at the Center for Environmental and Climate Science at Lund University, emphasizes that forest fires are a natural part of the life cycle of forests. At the same time, she expresses concern that climate change has redrawn the playing field.
– As long as the forest fires occur as part of the forests’ natural regeneration, it is not such a big problem. But due to human-caused climate change, the fires have intensified. With higher temperatures and more dry periods, we have also increased the risk of even more fires in the future.