TORONTO – Other than “carbon tax”! Canada’s biggest polluter is not man, but a natural phenomenon called “fire.” According to a new study, in fact, the wildfires that devastated the Canadian forest last year produced more carbon emissions than the burning of fossils in all but three countries in the world: only India, China and the United States polluted more. 

According to the research, published Wednesday in the scientific journal “Nature” (you can read it here), with 647 megatonnes, the carbon released in the fires that broke out last year in Canada exceeded those of seven of the ten largest national emitters in 2022. And according to the same study, the climate widespread heat and dryness was the main driver of the spread of fires. Not only that, such temperatures will likely become typical within three decades, i.e. by 2050, raising further concerns about the long-term viability of the Canadian forest as a “carbon sink” absorbing more carbon than it releases into the atmosphere.

Emissions from fires, however, are not taken into account by countries as they strive to meet the Paris Agreement goals of preventing temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. “If our goal is truly to limit the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we need to adapt the amount of carbon we can emit through our economy, corresponding to how much carbon is absorbed or not absorbed by forests” comments Brendan Byrne, NASA atmospheric scientist and lead author of the study in question.

Another study last week, also in “Nature” (you can read it here), documented the conditions that led to the fires. According to the research, these include unusually early snowmelt, persistent drought conditions in western Canada and a hot, dry June in eastern Canada. The fire weather index – which measures factors that make fire more likely, such as drought conditions and heat – was the highest since it was first recorded in 1940, Piyush Jain said, Canadian Forest Service researcher and lead author of that study. “We literally saw fire from coast to coast” Jain said, citing fires on Vancouver Island and Halifax. He then added that, according to preliminary data, the 2024 season is also already well above average in terms of areas burned.

A report on the state of wildfires produced in the United Kingdom earlier this month and published by the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK (you can read it here), calculated that if we don’t cut emissions, the kind of extreme fire season seen in Canada in 2023 will be 6 to 11 times more likely by 2100. In short, it’s like a dog chasing its tail: the more we pollute, the more we create the conditions because the number of fires increases which, in turn, will pollute. From carbon sink to carbon source, Canada’s forest is at a turning point.

In the pic above, a wildfire in Alberta (photo from Twitter X – @AlbertaWildfire)