#NASA study tallies carbon emissions from massive Canadian fires

They found that the Canadian fires released more #carbon in five months than Russia or Japan emitted from fossil fuels in all of 2022 (about 480 million and 291 million metric tons, respectively). While the #CarbonDioxide (#CO2) emitted from both #wildfires and #FossilFuel combustion cause extra #warming immediately, there's an important distinction, the scientists noted.

phys.org/news/2024-08-nasa-tal

#ClimateCatastrophe
#Canada

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@tuxom The difference is trees grow back (assuming you let them) ultimately create a net neutral carbon emission in the end. The same cant be said for fossil fuel consumption.

@tuxom indeed we have, but that is unrelated to my point... A forest that burns down isnt removed by humans for development, it just burned down. It then grows back and the net neutral carbon is 0.

Now if you showed an event of humans clear cutting and replacing with developed land, that would be a net positive on carbon, presuming it was burnt as fuel. But that isnt what we are seeing here.

@freemo This depends on the timescale and the ecologic boundary conditions which allow regrowth. On the other hand, a burned forest, which is at least partly caused by climate crisis, changes erosion patterns, water supply and so on... @tuxom

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