New research shows forest fires are burning twice as much global tree cover as 20 years ago due to climate change. Resulting in blazes claiming an estimated three more million hectares each year – an area the size of Belgium – compared with 2001.
The study showed that the majority of tree cover loss is occurring in the boreal forests that cover Russia, Canada and Alaska, which are among the largest stores of carbon on Earth.
The results showed that 2021 was one of the worst years for forest fires since the turn of the century, causing 9.3 million hectares of tree cover loss globally.
The researcher said that climate change was likely a “major driver” in increased fire activity, with extreme heat waves that leave forests tinder dry already five times more likely today than a century and a half ago.
These drier conditions lead to higher emissions from fires, further worsening climate change as a part of a “fire-climate feedback loop”, said the authors.
The large majority – some 70 percent – of fire-related tree cover loss over the last two decades occurred in boreal regions, likely because high-latitude regions are warming at a faster rate than the rest of the planet.
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-climate-unprecedented-forest-loss.html