Boreal fires released almost twice as much CO2 into the atmosphere as global aviation by 2021

The wildfires – themselves the result of global warming – threaten to make it a lot more difficult to halt climate change.

In 2021, the congested boreal forests in North America and Eurasia will emit some 1.76 billion tons of CO2. American researchers write that in the magazine Science. It’s a new record that may not last very long.

Increase in wildfires
In recent years, we have been increasingly startled by wildfires in the subarctic region, such as in Siberia and northern Canada. Not only is a lot of vegetation lost, but large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) are also released.

Increase
CO2 emissions that can be traced back to boreal wildfires have been gradually increasing since the year 2000, but peaked in 2021, according to new measurements. In that year, wildfires released no less than 150% more CO2 than was released on average on an annual basis between the year 2000 and 2021 by burning vegetation. “According to our measurements, the 2021 boreal fires have shattered previous records,” said researcher Steven Davis. “Boreal fires generated nearly twice as much CO2 as global aviation by 2021.”

Climate change
The fact that fires are increasingly raging in the subarctic – often uninhabited or sparsely inhabited – area may seem like something we have little to do with. But nothing is less true. Because the fires – through the associated CO2 emissions – not only contribute to global warming, but are also a direct consequence of it. Due to global warming, temperatures in the subarctic are rising and droughts are also increasing. And under such conditions, fires can start and grow more easily, after which more CO2 is released and the conditions for the start and maintenance of wildfires will therefore only become more favourable. “The escalation of wildfires in the boreal region is expected to accelerate the release of carbon stored in permafrost and also contribute to the northward expansion of shrubland,” he said. researcher Yang Chen. “And that in turn can lead to more warming and create an even more favorable climate for wildfires to occur.”

It’s worrying. Just like the record-breaking emissions that the wildfires already recorded in 2021. “If such emissions (…) become the new normal, it will be even more difficult than expected to stabilize the Earth’s climate,” Davis said. “About 80 percent of these CO2 emissions will be reabsorbed through vegetation regrowth, but 20 percent disappears almost irrevocably into the atmosphere. So people have to find ways to remove that carbon from the air or significantly reduce our own production of atmospheric CO2.”