AXIOS article August 29/24
EXCERPTS:
Canada’s record 2023 wildfire season emitted so much carbon into the atmosphere that it put the country on par with the annual fossil fuel emissions of India, a new study finds.
- The study’s results also illustrate the fraught politics of carbon accounting, since Canada does not report wildfire-related emissions to the U.N. under the Paris Agreement.
The paper, published in the journal Nature by an international team of researchers, provides a warning about designing carbon offset programs around ecosystems long thought to be relatively stable.
In just five months, Canada emitted enough carbon from wildfires in 2023 — 647 million metric tons — to be comparable to the annual fossil fuel emissions from the top 10 largest emitters.
Court Painter seen with an AHM painting
Images: Allan Harding MacKay Smouldering Boreal Series 2024