Forest fires and global warming - September 03, 2007
The forest fires that raged across Greece last week are prompting some to look more closely at the contribution of such fires to global warming. While global warming may be leading to more forest fires, as Grist notes, the fires then accelerate global warming themselves. As Reuters says, the Greek fires are nothing compared to those burning in the Amazon, the Congo and Indonesia. In fact, in a worrying if neat comparison, the news wire says an area of forest the size of Greece disappears every year, with deforestation accounting for 18% of carbon dioxide emissions.
The Independent says environmentalists might actually be partly to blame, due to conservation practices which discourage controlled burning and result in a massive build up of combustible material. While non-human sources of carbon dioxide are exempt from the Kyoto Protocol, according to Reuters, it's not clear what happens if fires turn out to be arson, as some suspect is the case in Greece. In a small piece of positive news, the Indonesian government setting up a ‘Forestry Eight’ group of countries to look at global warming (Antara news).
Image: Land clearing fires in Indonesia / NASA
Comments
People tend to forget that the major cause of forest fires is flammable wood. The easy solution is to encase all trees and other forest-related shrubbery in fire retardants such as metal. Yes, it'll be expensive giving all trees a metal skin, but think of the lives such measures will save.
Posted by: Dave | September 3, 2007 03:51 PM
To whom it may concern;
More and more, forest fires destroy our landscapes, homes, and even take away people’s lives.
To counter these plagues and reduce the side effects, it is necessary to have a system adapted to the situations.
I am pleased to introduce the FEODROP concept, which is specifically designed to protect your homes as they are threatened by a wall of raging fire.
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Best regards,
Posted by: Claude REY | August 11, 2008 09:51 PM