Wildfires just as bad a polluter
2007-11-01 11:52
Washington - In just one week, Southern California's wildfires spewed as much carbon dioxide - the primary global warming gas - as the state's power plants and vehicles do, scientists figure.
A new study by two Colorado researchers shows that US wildfires pump a significant amount of the greenhouse gas into the air each year, more than the state of Pennsylvania does. It raises questions about how useful it is to plant trees to offset rising carbon dioxide emissions and soothe environmental consciences.
Because the California wildfires occurred just as the study was about to be published, the researchers calculated how much carbon dioxide was likely to come from the devastating blazes from October 19-26. It is a lot: 8.7 million tons.
That is more than the state of Vermont produces in a year. And it is also more than the six million tons estimated by California's air control agency, which used a different calculation method.
On average, wildfires in the United States each year pump 322 million tons of carbon dioxide. That is about five percent of what the country emits by burning fossil fuels, such as gasoline and coal, according to the new research published online on Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Carbon Balance and Management.
"It is quite a big chunk," said study co-author Jason Neff of the University of Colorado at Boulder. But he adds: "It's nothing compared to our fossil fuels burning."
- AP