The multiple forest fires that have been raging in France since the start of the summer have already released record amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to satellite data. Favored by global warming, these fires also reinforce the greenhouse effect by releasing CO2 in particular while reducing the number of trees available to absorb carbon. Overheated, France continues to burn in the west. While the peak of the heat wave was reached on Friday August 12, with temperatures exceeding 41°C in the South-West, French firefighters – now supported by European reinforcements – continue to fight against forest fires, in particular by Gironde, where “non-standard” fires have already devastated the forests of Landiras and Teste-de-Buch in mid-July. The fires that raged during the recent heat waves in Europe illustrate this: global warming favors forest, which have already destroyed a larger area since the start of the year than in the whole of 2021. In France, more than 60,500 hectares have burned since the start of 2022, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. forest (Effis), and the month of July holds the record for areas burned. A worrying phenomenon from the point of view of carbon emissions, recalls, Friday August 12, the European program on climate change, Copernicus (CAMS), announcing that France recorded this summer the carbon emissions from forest fires the most since the beginning of the records in 2003. The day before, the CAMS also warned of the increase in ozone levels during heat waves. Air quality degraded by the release of CO2 A forest fire is a real cocktail of chemical compounds. Among them, many greenhouse gases: mainly CO2, methane, and nitrogen oxides, which are toxic to humans. But the fires also release aerosols, soot (extrafine particles) and tar. Also, because they are more numerous and more intense, the fires increasingly affect the quality of the air breathed by the populations. In France, mid-July, the smoke from the fire in Gironde, loaded with particles and nitrogen dioxide, was felt in Bordeaux, whose agglomeration has more than 800,000 inhabitants, and even in Paris, more 500 km. But above all, as the Copernicus report reminds us on Friday, the burning of trees releases carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. For the single period June-August 2022 , nearly a million tonnes of carbon were released into the atmosphere by the French fires, the equivalent of the annual emissions of 790,000 cars. At this rate, the report tells us, the record for the whole of 2003 (nearly 1.3 million tonnes) could be beaten and make 2022 the worst year since records began. In Spain, this record was beaten during the heat wave of mid-July, a period marked by violent fires in Extremadura (southwest) and Galicia (northwest). The Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) dataset then showed that total estimated carbon emissions from fires in Spain between June 1 and July 17 were already higher than June-July totals from 2003 to 2021. The heat wave in the Iberian Peninsula and south-west France “has made the fires worse”, explains Copernicus scientist Mark Parrington. In Spain, 245,293 hectares were consumed; 76,423 hectares in Portugal. Once the fire is extinguished and the plume dissipated, the impact on the climate is assessed in relation to the trees that have gone up in smoke. Disappeared, plants can no longer play their role as “carbon sinks” (reservoirs that store, by a natural or artificial mechanism, atmospheric carbon). However, French forests capture 25% of the CO2 released by the country, recently recalled Sophie Szopa, atmospheric chemist, at Ouest-France. And those who remain play their own role more difficult. While burned forests can take thirty years to reabsorb the carbon released during the fire (if they are not burned in the meantime), the specialist adds: ” France’s carbon sinks have been declining since the 1990s, partly due to growth and drought problems. Fires are an additional pressure.” also accompanied by its own rise in surface ozone levels, the Copernicus program reported on Wednesday. other pollutants, released in particular by the automobile or industry. It is naturally present in the atmosphere, but at high altitudes. Lower down (surface, or tropospheric, ozone), it is an important greenhouse gas and pollutant, a component of urban smog, which harms ecosystems and human health.” The potential impacts of very high pollution by ozone on human health can be significant, both in terms of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,” said Mark Parrington, scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, in the press release. “High values can lead to symptoms such as sore throat, cough, headache and an increased risk of asthma attacks. The Clean Air Alliance estimates that ozone pollution causes around one million additional deaths per year. This is why it is crucial that we monitor surface ozone levels.”With the new heatwave sweeping across most of Europe this week, Copernicus forecasts predict further in daily maximum surface ozone levels. Levels well above the threshold of 100 µg/m³ considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO), and often above the European 120 µg/m³ in several European capitals. Last March, a study published by Canadian researchers in the journal Science already mentioned the negative influence of smoke from forest fires on the state of the ozone layer. By studying the consequences of the 2019-2020 fires in Australia, the researchers demonstrated that the fumes that reached the atmosphere had caused a drop in the concentration of ozone and an increase in the concentration of chlorine gases. Disturbances which could, according to them, create “holes” in the ozone layer, comparable to those which had been observed in the 1980s. With AFP and Reuters
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