Divine Inferno - The Modern Forest Fire

Environment Canada estimates that for every acre of primarily coniferous forest burned, approximately 4.81 metric tons of carbon is released into the atmosphere, between 80 percent and 90 percent in the form of carbon dioxide (CO₂), with the rest as carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH₄). And we encourage intense fires by the misguided Forest Fire Management Suppression schemes we have practiced for over one hundred years.

Prior to the 1800s, First Nations peoples are estimated to have burned roughly 4.5 million acres of land producing an estimated 21.6 Mt of GHG per year, in order to manage game, spur the growth of edible plants, and deprive enemies of cover.

By Cameron Strandberg from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada (DSC_7139) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Big difference among tree species in terms of carbon storage. High-density wood and large trunk diameters = big carbon. Fire sweeping through a forest of evergreens produces higher carbon emissions than if less dense trees were being consumed.

Then there is the soil! The Indonesian fires of 1997 burned relatively thin tropical trees. But the forests were also covered in carbon-rich peat, up to 20 meters thick. These fires were estimated to have released between 13 percent and 40 percent of the world’s annual emissions in 1997.