According to a study published in the journal Nature, wildfires in Canada in 2023 will release more than 2,4 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This volume exceeds the annual emissions of all countries in the world, except for the United States, India and China. This is reported by TASS.
A team of American and Canadian climate scientists led by Brendan Byrne of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed data collected by the Terra and S5P climate probes from May through September 2023. Using information on carbon monoxide concentrations, the scientists calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emitted.
The study found that the fires covered an area seven times larger than normal for the region. As a result, Canadian forests emitted more CO2 than the annual emissions of industrialized countries such as Russia, Japan, Germany and South Korea.
Scientists warn that such large-scale fires could become a frequent occurrence in Canada by mid-century due to climate change. They emphasize the need to strengthen measures to prevent forest fires and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
It is worth noting that in 2023, fires destroyed more than 15 million hectares of forest in Canada, a record since 1972. The trend continued in 2024, when by mid-August another 3,4 million hectares of forest had burned, leading to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
