The ongoing wildfire season in Canada has been unprecedented. Even though the worse has been in the West for a while, this week, we're seeing smoke in Quebec city again, and there's a new smog warning today. But how much carbon do we emit by fighting fires, bringing firefighters from other countries, evacuating towns and letting some buildings burn?
The answer is not that much―but only relatively. Unfortunately, it's trees themselves which emit the most. By far.
“The effectiveness of our greenhouse gas emission reduction targets is going up in smoke, literally.”
The amount of greenhouse gases burned in this year’s wildfires is estimated to be more than two and a half times that of all sectors in the Canadian economy combined, said Kurz, citing federal government data.
It's been several months since the newscast I follow (Canada's daily 45-minute The National) covers climate-related catastrophes/issues for 5 to 10 minutes on average. If we haven't already passed a tipping point, it's never felt so suffocatingly close.🥵