Forest fires fueled by climate change are destroying twice as many trees worldwide as they did 20 years ago. An area the size of 16 football fields is destroyed by fire every minute, according to a University of Maryland study released Wednesday. The greatest tree loss is occurring in the boreal forests, which cover much of Russia, Canada and Alaska and are among the world’s largest carbon sinks.
The extent of the forest fires
The study found that an additional three million hectares of forest are estimated to have been destroyed by fire every year since 2001 – an area the size of Belgium. The data shows that 2021 was one of the worst wildfire years since the turn of the century – 9.3 million hectares of trees were lost worldwide. That’s more than a third of all tree loss over the past year, according to data collected by the University of Maryland, Global Forest Watch and the World Resources Institute. Other factors included deforestation and pests.
Researchers used satellite imagery for their work and accounted for fires that kill all or most of the tree canopy and cause long-term changes in forest structure and soil chemistry.
Western Europe saw an unprecedented number of fires in 2022, the EU satellite monitoring service said last week. Tens of thousands of hectares of forest were lost in France, Spain and Portugal.
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major problem of climate change
According to the researchers, climate change is likely a “main cause” of the increasing fires. Extreme heat waves drying out forests are five times more likely today than they were 150 years ago. The forest fires, in turn, lead to more emissions, which further increase global warming and make further fires even more likely in a “feedback effect”.
Source: Nachrichten
