Canada’s historic wildfire season last year resulted in the burning of numerous trees, causing forests to emit more carbon than the fossil fuel emissions of most countries in 2022, as per a study released on Wednesday.
According to Brendan Byrne, a carbon cycle scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lead author of the study, “Only China, the United States, and India emit more carbon dioxide annually than these fires. Emissions from these fires are unprecedented in Canada’s history.”
Byrne’s research, published in Nature magazine, estimates that the emissions from the fires (approximately 647 megatons of carbon) are over four times the annual emissions from Canada’s fossil fuel burning. The study predicts that by 2023, about 4% of Canada’s forests will have burned.
While Canada’s forests typically absorb more carbon than they emit, the latest findings suggest a concerning trend where these carbon sinks may be exacerbating emissions. This raises concerns about the reliability of carbon sinks in the future as wildfire patterns evolve.
Byrne stated, “The year 2023 was truly exceptional due to heat, drought, and fire emissions. With summer temperatures projected to normalize in Canadian forests around the 2050s, we might see a rise in the frequency of fires, impacting the carbon storage capacity of forests significantly.”
In 2023, 232,000 individuals were evacuated due to the smoke from the wildfires in Canada, leading to the worst smoke season in modern U.S. history, with cities like New York facing air pollution concerns.
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images file.
To calculate the total carbon emissions from the wildfire season, researchers used satellite data to determine how much atmospheric carbon was absorbed by light. They also noted that Canada experienced exceptional drought and its hottest summer since at least 1980, conditions expected to become more frequent in the future.
Approximately half of the carbon released by human activities remains in the atmosphere, a quarter is absorbed by oceans, and the remaining quarter by terrestrial ecosystems like trees and plants on Earth.
Byrne emphasized, “Changes in the frequency and severity of fires could impact this absorption process. This has significant implications for global carbon emissions.”
Canada’s forested regions account for about 8.5% of global forests, as per a recent study.
The emissions estimates from the researchers align closely with other analyses of the 2023 fires in Canada. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reported approximately 480 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions from fires, which is based on different analytical methods.
Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at Copernicus, noted that the new study corroborated the findings of their research while incorporating additional satellite data to reduce uncertainties. Although the U.S. has not been as affected by Canadian wildfire smoke this season, large carbon dioxide emissions are once again being released.
Parrington mentioned, “Monitoring indicates that 2024 is the second-worst wildfire year in Canada in the last two decades, based on estimated emissions, following 2023.”
Source: www.nbcnews.com
