forest fire
– Photo : Amar Ujala
Expansion
The devastating heat-induced forest fires in Canada in 2023 released more carbon dioxide than India. This heat-trapping gas caused more pollution and increased temperatures in the world than the fossil fuels burned in India.
This was revealed in a new study published in Global Change Biology by scientists from the World Resources Institute and the University of Maryland. The research showed that the carbon dioxide released by this forest fire in Canada had lit up a forest larger than West Virginia. Scientists assessed the devastating impact of the fire that burned for months in Canada in 2023. According to this, it released 3.28 billion tons of heat-producing carbon dioxide into the air.
Emitted as much carbon dioxide into the air as 647 million cars
That’s roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide that 647 million cars emit into the air in a year, according to data from the US Environmental Protection Agency. The fires emitted about four times more carbon emissions than airplanes emit in a year, according to James McCarthy, lead author of the study and a research associate at WRI’s Global Forest Watch.
Climate change also plays a big role
Jacob Bendix, a professor of geography and environment at Syracuse University, said the loss of so much forest is a huge deal and extremely worrying from a global perspective, but climate change also plays a big role in it.