The wildfires ravaging Canada are releasing unprecedented rates of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, scientists said, more than doubling the combined emissions from all other sectors in the country.
So far this summer, wildfires burning in Canada’s forests have released roughly 1,420 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere, according to preliminary data from Natural Resources Canada, or the government body tasked with measuring such emissions.
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That more than doubles combined emissions from oil and gas, transportation, buildings, and agricultural sectors combined, which emitted a combined total of 670 million metric tons of emissions during the same period, said Werner Kurz, a senior research scientist with Natural Resources Canada.
The emissions data also shows how much climate change and extreme weather conditions have intensified wildfires in the last decade, Kurz said.
Historically, these forest systems have been carbon sinks and or near carbon-neutral — but in recent years, this trend has changed, changing forests from carbon sinks to carbon emitters.
“Now, fires have been getting more frequent, with larger areas burned, and more intensifiers," Kurz said. "And if you combine all that, you get the observed increases in emissions that we are reporting. And, of course, the forecasts are for a continuation of a worsening of the situation for years to come."
According to the team, these preliminary results illustrate how much wildfire emissions are affecting the environment, though wildfire management is not always talked about with the same level of urgency as other climate priorities, such as slashing emissions from the fossil fuel industry or in the transportation, buildings, and agricultural sectors.
While both Canada and the United States have set aside funds for forest management at the state and federal level — the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, for example, allocated $5 billion in funds to the Forest Service for fuels and forest health treatment—Kurz said much more needs to be done.
Canada’s wildfires are burning in both managed and unmanaged forests, including its sprawling boreal forest, a 1.3 billion acre territory roughly the size of Argentina.
Putting out fires in boreal forest areas and unmanaged forests is difficult since personnel are often unable to access the fire due to a lack of infrastructure or land breaks, such as roads or bodies of water.
Kurz said Canada has to develop infrastructure such as roads, airports, and other access points throughout its dense and unmanaged forests to allow firefighters to respond.
Fires in unmanaged areas “are almost impossible to stop” due to the lack of access, he said.
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Canada’s wildfire season is just halfway over, and persistent high-heat and dry conditions have allowed wildfires to quickly burn — meaning the country will not feel relief anytime soon.
“I think all the indications are that these fires will continue to burn through August and September, unless we have an unusual and very strong change in rainfall events,” Kurz said.