source: Liberation and AFP, Published today at 8:21 a.m.
translation: BingTranslate/doxa-louise
Provisional Accounting
In Canada, 490 fires are still burning, more than half out of control
In one week, from 6 to 7.8 million hectares were devastated by fires, whose smoke now threatens Europe. In two months, at least 100,000 people have been displaced.
Highway 103 through Nova Scotia, Canada, ravaged by fires. (Nova Scotia Government/AFP)
From East to West, Canada is in the grips of an exceptional fire season even though the high point of summer has not yet been reached. No province is spared, not even Quebec or Nova Scotia, which are usually spared.
A total of 490 fires were still burning on Tuesday, June 27, more than half of which were considered out of control. At the beginning of the season, at the beginning of May, it was Alberta in the West that focused all the worries by being confronted very quickly with an unprecedented situation.
Then a few weeks later, Nova Scotia, an Atlantic province with a very mild climate, and Quebec were in turn caught in megafires. It is now the latter province that is the most affected with 112 active fires.
In total, more than 100,000 people have been displaced.
The mark of six million hectares burned was crossed on June 19, only a week ago. On Tuesday, that of eight million hectares (7.8 million) was almost reached, an area equivalent to the whole of Austria.
In Nova Scotia, near the town of Shelburne, in the forest devastated by forest fires. (Nova Scotia Government/AFP)
In Quebec alone, 1.3 million hectares have been burned, compared to an annual average of less than 10,000 over the past ten years. The areas burned in 25 days already exceed the totality of those recorded in the last twenty years combined.
Annual record carbon emissions
Carbon emissions from the fires have already surpassed the Canadian annual record, according to Europe's Copernicus Observatory. These 160 megatonnes of carbon released into the atmosphere represent the equivalent of approximately 590 million tonnes of CO2, or 88% of Canada's annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2021.
Canadian fires alone in 2023 currently account for more than 10% of global carbon emissions from forest fires in 2022 (1,455 megatonnes).
These gigantic fires emit plumes of smoke visible from space. Thanks to the atmospheric circulation at high altitude, these ash clouds are moving across the planet, carrying them towards Europe since the beginning of the week. Microdust in very large numbers in the upper atmosphere could veil the sun and see the sky take on a milky color. The phenomenon is comparable to large episodes of pollution, with a "smog" enveloping the cities.
No comments:
Post a Comment