Greenhouse gases from Wildfires

November 1st, 2007 Alex

The wildfires in Southern California last week created the same amount of greenhouse gases equivalent to one week’s worth of the burning of fossil fuels. The University of Colorado showed that the wildfires created 7.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from Oct. 19 to 26. The study was based on satellite observations and a computer model. The damages from the wildfires were estimated at over $1.5 billion and destroyed 2,196 homes and 515,267 acres of land. The fires were caused by different incidents, one was caused by a 12 year old boy playing with matches, another was an arsonist, and one was caused by workers using griding tools on a construction site. In my previous post, I mentioned the cause and effect of global warming and wildfires. Wildfires cannot be contributed to global warming but it can be another good reason to fight global warming. 

via SFGate
statistics were taken from here

Entry Filed under: Environment,Local