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Climate Change Fueling Wildfires in North America and Russia

June 21, 2016 Add Comment Edit

Wildfires fueled by record heat have ravaged areas across North America and Russia this year. This year is very much like last year. However, the western fires of 2015, were not as widespread and they came later than they did this year.

There is strong evidence that global warming has lengthened wildfire seasons. This research is corroborated by recent observations in North America and Russia. Across the continent warm temperatures are melting snowpacks, exacerbating droughts and contributing to the number and size of wildfires. Heat is an important catalyst for forest fires and temperatures continue to soar. Even before the start of summer Phoenix hit a sweltering 127 degree F [or 53 C]. Heat records are being broken in many states and in parts of Southern California temperatures exceeded 120 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius).

In California a number of fires are raging including one in the Santa Barbara region which has burned almost 10,000 acres. Near Albuquerque, New Mexico a total of more than 20,000 acres have burned and north of Phoenix a fire has consumed more than 26,000 acres. A number of other fires are also burning in Utah and Nevada.

Canada is also contending with a slew of forest fires. In May there was the massive Fort McMurray fire in Alberta. A number of forest fires are also destroying vast swaths of land in Quebec and Ontario. The city of Greenstone North of Thunder Bay declared a state of emergency and was preparing for a Fort McMurray style evacuation. In Nova Scotia hot temperatures have put most of the province at very very high risk. There are fires burning in North Preston and in Halifax.

The Guardian reports that a large number of forest fires are also burning in Russia. Although official estimates state that 669,000 hectares have succumbed to wildfires so far in 2016. However, a Greenpeace analysis of satellite data reveals that 3.5m hectares have burned this year. To put these numbers into perspective, the massive forest fires around Fort McMurray in May, destroyed around 580,000 hectares.

"WWF forestry expert Alexander Bryukhanov said under-reporting meant that the annual extent of forest fires in the US and Canada are regularly double that in Russia, which has twice as much forest."

The fact that the Russian government hides the real data on forest fires suggests that they are reluctant to admit to the growth in fires for fear that people will call for climate action.

In Russia there is also a connection between heat and wildfires. The frequency of Russian forest fires there has increased 30-50 percent in the last 20-30 years. The Russian heatwave of 2010, which cost the nation $15 billion, was made three times more likely by climate change.

According to one study climate change will cause the cost of combating wildfires to exceed $62 billion annually by 2050.

Forest fires are not only destructive and costly, they are directly responsible for respiratory illnesses and deaths.

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Climate Change Fueling Forest Fires in the North American West

July 13, 2015 Add Comment Edit

In North America the summer of 2015 has just gotten underway and already fires are raging across vast swaths of the continent. Forest fires are burning across the Canadian west and Alaska. These fires are getting worse and they are increasingly being attributed to climate change. Tens of thousands of people have had to be evacuated. In the sparsely populated province of Saskatchewan alone 13,000 people had to be moved, making this the largest such evacuation in the province's history.

These forest fires are creating massive amounts of smoke that have blanketed much of the continent. The toxic smoke has taken a toll on air quality prompting warnings in many places across North America.

"Wildfire smoke can pose serious health risks to people hundreds of miles away from the sources of fires," said Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist with NRDC. "Wildfire smoke already clouds the skies of millions of Americans and because climate change will fuel more wildfires, that danger will rise."

Alaska recorded its warmest year on record last year and the state is warming twice as fast as other states.
A 2013 PNAS study which examined lake sediments in Alaska found that the number of forest fires has increasing. A 2015 report from Climate Central found that Alaska's fire season is last 40 percent longer than 50 years ago.

Alaska is not the only place where forest fires on on the increase, thousands of wildfires have burned across Canada in 2015. According to John Innes, the dean of UBC's faculty of forestry, these fires are attributable at least in part to climate change and he went on to say the situation is likely to become far worse a few decades from now.

There are a number of dangerous feedback loops involving forest fires and climate change. The fires not bleed carbon into the atmosphere, the forests that are lost eliminate important carbon sinks. There are also other more complex feedback loops between forest fires and climate change.

One of the most dramatic impacts from these fires involves the loss of permafrost in northern Canada and Alaska. There is an estimated 1.4 trillion tons of carbon in the world's permafrost. That is twice the amount currently in the atmosphere. If the carbon locked in the permafrost were to be released it would drive runaway climate change. Another permafrost feedback loop of concern involves Arctic warming and algae blooms.

A recent Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) report reads, “fire activity has increased dramatically and is now well above average for this time of year.”

One of the worst hit areas is British Columbia where hundreds of wildfires are burning across the province. In 2014 BC recorded its third worst forest fire season in the province's history. A draft report released last year by the Wildfire Management Branch said these large fires are expected to increase as climate change progresses. The report says climate change will mean "an ever growing wildfire risk and threat to communities, critical infrastructure and natural values in British Columbia."

The Edmonston Sun reported that that there are some 1,200 fires that have burned almost three quarters of a million acres in Alberta since April 1.

The CBC reported that fires in Saskatchewan are “unprecedented” for the region, noting that the area currently burning is about 10 times the average. Some are predicting that many of the fires in Saskatchewan will burn until the fall.

As explained by Innes, "longer term, we will see more fires. We will see the fire season extending, it will start earlier, it will go on later, and the fires that we get will be more intense."

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The Dangerous Feedback Loop Between Wildfires and Climate Change

August 19, 2014 Add Comment Edit

In North America, wildfires are destroying vast swaths of forest and creating massive plumes of smoke which extend across the continent and all the way to the Mid-Atlantic.

In Canada, there are huge fires raging in B.C., the Northwest Territories, and Ontario. As of August 6, a total of 3,840 wildfires have destroyed over 3,508,582 million acres so far this year. As of August 12 there were a total of 41 large wildfires burning in the U.S. Ten in California, ten in Washington and ten in Oregon. A total of eight fires are burning in Idaho and three in Montana. The land mass impacted by these fires totals 714,044 acres.

As revealed by a Climate Central analysis, wildfires are on the increase. Their examination of 42 years of U.S. Forest Service records for 11 Western states shows that there are now 7 times more fires greater than 10,000 acres each year and nearly 5 times more fires larger than 25,000 acres each year. There are also twice as many fires over 1,000 acres each year, with an average of more than 100 per year from 2002 through 2011, compared with less than 50 during the 1970’s. On average, wildfires burn twice as much land area each year as they did 4 decades ago.

The price tag for U.S. wildfires this year is around $1.4 billion, which is 40 percent more than the amount of money budgeted.

Pollution

The costs of wildfires are not only material, they also produce smoke which can harm and even kill. Wildfires produce “fine particle” air pollution, which is a direct threat to human health even during relatively short exposures. The fine particulates in wildfire smoke can penetrate deep into the lungs, increasing the mortality risk and health problems. This risk is particularly pronounced for those who have respiratory illnesses, heart conditions and the elderly.

One study showed that the air quality from wildfires is worse than air pollution levels in Beijing. According to the study, wildfires burning within 50-100 miles of a city routinely caused air quality to be 5 to 15 times worse than normal, and often 2-3 times worse than the worst non-fire day of the year.

In North America, high smoke particle concentrations have compromised air quality in parts of the northern Rockies, the Great Lakes and the Northeast. Last year Grants Pass, Oregon recorded one of the worst examples of poor air quality attributable to wildfire. For nine days last summer, Grants Pass had air quality so poor that it was unhealthy for anyone to be outside. On five of those days, fine particle pollution was literally off the charts — higher than the local air quality meter could read.

Smoke from wildfires can travel great distances. It is often pushed into the stratosphere by the heat from fires. Smoke from Canada's wildfires has even crossed the Atlantic and made its way to Europe.

Climate change

The relationship between wildfires and climate change was made recently by President Obama's Science Adviser John Holdren. The day after wildfires prompted California Governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of national emergency and mobilize the national guard, Holdren pointed out that the situation is getting worse. He explained that the length of U.S. fire seasons has expanded by 60 to 80 days since the 1980s, and the amount of acres consumed by wildfires each year has doubled to more than seven million.

Heat and drought

Hotter springs and summers make the fire season last longer. Hotter, dryer weather produces more fuel for these fires which feed on a mix of desiccated kindling. Heat dries out dead vegetation on the forest floor which increases the number of fires and causes more energetic fires. Climate change also increases the incidence and intensity of wildfires through reduced levels of snowpack, and earlier snow melt.

In California, a state being devastated by a three year drought, at least 3,600 fires have burned about 63 square miles so far this summer. In 2013, there were a total of 3,000 fires in the state. The five-year average for this time of year is about 2,500 fires and 54 square miles burned.

The Northwest Territories may ring the Arctic, but even here, high temperatures are fueling wildfires. The hottest and driest weather in half a century has caused the worst fire season ever in the Territories.

We are already experiencing warmer temperatures, and as explained in the IPCC 4th Assessment Report, summer temperatures in western North America could increase between 3.6 F and 9 F by the middle of this century.

As the planet continues to warm, wildfires will increase in intensity and size. The combination of high temperatures and low precipitation could drive a six-fold increase in wildfires over the next 2 decades.

Lightening

Fires are often caused by lightning strikes which are expected to increase as the planet warms. Research suggests that climate change causes more intense thunderstorms and more lightening.

A study examining the impact of climate change on the world's lightning and thunderstorm patterns found that for every one degree Celsius of long-term warming, there will be a near 10 percent increase in lightning activity.

As explained by the study's lead author, Professor Colin Price, head of the Department of Geophysics, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Tel Aviv University in Israel, while there may be somewhat less thunderstorms, the data shows that these storms have "fifty percent more lightning activity."

Feedback loops

Climate change causes fires which emit carbon, which in turn exacerbates global warming. This feedback loop is especially pronounced in boreal forests because they are commonly located on top of peat. When peat is burned it releases far more carbon than non-peat fires, this accelerates global warming and sets the stage for more fires.

A 2010 study illustrates why wildfires in boreal forests are particularly worrisome. As explained by the study's lead author, University of Guelph professor Merritt Turetsky, "half the world’s soil carbon is locked in northern permafrost and peatland soils. This is carbon that has accumulated in ecosystems a little bit at a time for thousands of years, but is being released very rapidly through increased burning."

The wildfires ravaging the Northwest Territories are expected to destroy between one and two million hectares of boreal forest this year alone. Last year, the province of Quebec lost 1.7 million hectares to fire. To put this in context, the relatively small Anaktuvuk river fire in 2007 was found to have released 2.1 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Larger, deeper burning fires could release much larger quantities of carbon.

"Essentially this could represent a runaway climate change scenario in which warming is leading to larger and more intense fires, releasing more greenhouse gases and resulting in more warming," Turetsky said.

Put simply, wildfires are not only caused by climate change, they also add to it. The widespread burning of boreal forests in particular could represent a tipping point from which we may not be able to recover.

Source: Global Warming is Real

Wildfires Peat and Carbon

August 13, 2014 Add Comment Edit

Boreal forests and Arctic tundras contain peat which stores carbon that is released when it burns. This is one of the worst years ever for wildfires in Canada's boreal forests. Up to two million hectares of boreal forests are expected to burn in the Northwest Territories alone this year.

The relationship between heat and wildfires around the Arctic is complex. Some areas like western Siberia are not experiencing the abnormal heat that we see in the Northwest Territories. Scientists, including those at NASA attribute this to the looping waves of the jet stream the facilitate the persistence of ridges of dry air in some locations while moisture-laden troughs linger in others.

In boreal forests some species of trees can be entirely eradicated by fire and never return. Permafrost is another casualty of big fires. When permafrost melts away under a fire, it makes it harder for some species of trees to repopulate in the burned out area.

One of the most destructive elements of fires involves a dangerous feedback loop. Boreal forests are commonly situated on peatlands which have huge carbon stores that are released when burned. Vast amounts of carbon are locked in boreal forests and the northern tundras. Roughly half of the world's soil contains peat.

According to University of Guelph professor Merritt Turetsky, the burning of forests containing peat, "could represent a runaway climate change scenario in which warming is leading to larger and more intense fires, releasing more greenhouse gases and resulting in more warming."

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The Dangerous Feedback Loop Between Forest Fires and Climate Change
Republicans Object to Federal Drought Aid and Refuse to Help Fight Wildfires
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Video - Southern California's Firenados are Spawned by Climate Change Induced Drought
Bushfires, Climate Change and the Insane Policies of Australia's Federal Government
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New Report on Extreme Weather in Australia