Original article from: Nature
Fires are releasing record levels of carbon dioxide, partly because they are burning ancient peatlands that have been a carbon sink.
Wildfires blazed along the Arctic Circle this summer, incinerating tundra, blanketing Siberian cities in smoke and capping the second extraordinary fire season in a row. By the time the fire season waned at the end of last month, the blazes had emitted a record 244 megatonnes of carbon dioxide — that’s 35% more than last year, which also set records. One culprit, scientists say, could be peatlands that are burning as the top of the world melts.
LEFT VIEWPOINTS
- Many people do not appreciate the seriousness of climate change because they don’t feel it.
- When we see a threat and feel it, such as the 9/11 attacks, people react. When a threat is slow or invisible, such as a pandemic or climate change, people tend to ignore the threat.
- If the Arctic continues to warm at the rate it is, it will lead to a melting of the permafrost, which will add billions of tons of CO2 and methane to the atmosphere.