Wildfires, intensified by global warming, are raging across Canada and have set records, emitting more than one billion tons of CO2 as of July.
Wildfires in Quebec province, Canada, on July 21, 2023. Photo: CFP
"Greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide produced by wildfires in Canada are having an undeniable impact on global warming," CGTN quoted Liu Zhihua, a researcher at the Institute of Applied Ecology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), on July 28.
Liu uses scientific models with remote sensing data to study and analyze greenhouse gases from burned forests. According to him, remote sensing technology is currently an effective way to estimate carbon emissions from large-scale forest fires.
The greenhouse effect caused by methane and nitrous oxide from Canadian wildfires is equivalent to 110 million tons of CO2. Meanwhile, the CO2 emissions from this event alone amounted to one billion tons. In total, more than 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions have been generated from wildfires to date, double the total energy-related CO2 emissions in Canada in 2021.
In 2023, up to July 27, firefighters had battled 4,818 fires, with the total area burned exceeding 12.2 million hectares, according to the Canadian Interagency Fire Centre (CIFFC).
Air pollutants such as PM2.5 and PM10 fine particulate matter, aerosols, and soot from Canadian wildfires don't stay in one place. For example, the movement of these pollutants led to the worst air pollution in New York City since 1960, exceeding Chicago's air quality index by 5.6 times on June 27th.
Pollutants moved beyond regional borders due to westerly wind circulation and weather dynamics, according to expert Wang Zhe at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics under CAS, who participated in the research project with Liu. They reached the Scandinavian peninsula on May 25, spread to Iceland and Greenland on June 8, and entered mainland Europe on June 26. They also reached North Africa and Asia, Wang said.
"The wildfires in Canada are truly a global environmental event. And because it's still ongoing, the ultimate impact will undoubtedly be far more severe than the available data suggests," Wang said.
Thu Thao (According to CGTN )
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