In 2020, emissions wildfire peaked
(sustainabilityenvironment.com) – Between 2003 and 2019, California’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 13%, equal to 65 Mt of CO2e less in the atmosphere. Pretty much every year they issue countries like Finland or Austria. A remarkable achievement. Wiped out in just one summer, two years ago. The reason? No change in climate policies: the blame lies with the emissions wildfire during the terrible season 2020.
“Fires in California have become an important and growing source of greenhouse gas emissions,” explains UCLA’s Michael Jerrett and lead author of the research that appeared in Environmental Pollution. “Fire emissions in 2020 essentially cancel 18 years of greenhouse gas emissions reduction“.
In fact, the budget is not even. The 2020 fire season, in fact, has generated in a few months about double the greenhouse gases cut by California in 16 years.
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“To put this in perspective, without considering future vegetation regrowth, 2020 emissions wildfire could be California’s second most important source of greenhouse gas emissions, Above industry or electricity production“, points out Miriam Marlier, another co-author of the study. “It is worth noting that many of the worst years of fires in California’s history have occurred in the last 20 years, with eighteen of the 20 most destructive fires – in terms of loss of life and property – since 2000, and five in 2020 alone”.
Two years ago was an exceptional season. But it will tend to become more and more normal as global temperatures rise. That year 4% of the state’s territory went up in smoke, 1.8 million hectares, due to almost 10 thousand separate fires. The smoke generated was such as flooding the air of the big cities on the coast for days. San Francisco woke up under a dark orange sky, an iconic image of that event.