A B.C. Sierra Club member says wildfire emission totals are “a major problem because we cannot continue to ignore these emissions.”
A B.C. Sierra Club member says carbon emissions from wildfires are “a major problem because we cannot continue to ignore these emissions.” Carbon Emissions. You can’t go a week in today’s news world without hearing about greenhouse gases and how governments around the world are trying to reduce carbon emissions. According to the United States Protection Agency, the main human activity that emits carbon dioxide is the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil) for energy and transportation. In British Columbia, around 62 million tonnes of greenhouse gases were emitted in 2021. It’s a reduction from previous years, such as 63.8 million tonnes in 2007 and 66.2 million tonnes in 2018. However, B.C.’s figures don’t include one massive item: forest fires, which create an unbelievably large amount of carbon emissions. It’s estimated that B.C. forest fires produced 170 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2017 and 196 million tonnes in 2018. In Europe, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said that carbon emissions from wildfires across Canada from Jan. 1 to July 31 totalled 290 megatonnes – more than double the previous record for the year as a whole. It’s thought that around 40 megatonnes of that total came from B.C.’s wildfires. Notably, those totals do not include carbon emissions from August and September.
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Now add the wildfire carbon emissions from the rest of the globe. We're already experiencing the climate-related carbon feedback loop. Is it any wonder we'll blow past the Paris accord target of 1.5C warming before 2030 and 2C before 2050.
Thankfully, large fossil fuel producers will be cutting back production…Nah, just kidding, we're going to fry.