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Australian Bushfires Pump Out Millions of Tons of Carbon
The deadly bush fires in Australia have released millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to more than a third of the country's CO2 emissions for a whole year, according to scientists.
A Boeing 737 flies by a massive smoke plume over Kinglake. (Photograph: S McEvoy/Newspix/Rex Features) The blazes in Victoria have so far claimed more than 180 lives and destroyed more than 750 homes. To make matters worse, the climate costs will also be dire because of the type of forest that burned, according to Mark Adams of the University of Sydney. "Once you burn millions of hectares of eucalypt forest, then you are putting into the atmosphere very large amounts of carbon," he told The Australian newspaper.
Australia's total emissions per year are around 330m tons of CO2. Adams's previous research has shown that the bush fires in 2003 and 2006-07 had put up to 105m tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because they burned up land carrying 50 to 80 tons of carbon per hectare.
This time, however, the forests being destroyed are even more carbon-rich, with more than 100 tons of above-ground carbon per hectare. The affected area is more than twice the size of London and takes in more than 20 towns north of Melbourne, so the CO2 emissions from this year's disaster could be far larger than previous fires.
"The world's forests are crucial to the long-term future of the planet as they lock away millions of tons of carbon dioxide," said Robin Webster, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth. "More must be done to protect them - deforestation is having a devastating effect and as climate change takes hold, forest fires like those in Australia are likely to become more frequent."
The carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires are not counted under the agreements made by countries in the Kyoto Protocol, though it is being considered for inclusion in the successor treaty that will be debated later this year in Copenhagen. The usual reasoning behind it was that, with any fires, new growth of vegetation would take up any extra CO2 that had been released. "That is true to a point, but if the long-term fire regime changes - we are now starting to have more fires - we may completely change the carbon balance of the forest," said Adam.
He added: "All informed scientific opinion suggests that whatever new protocol is signed [at the UN summit] in Copenhagen or elsewhere will include forest carbon, simply because to not do so would be to ignore one of the biggest threats to the global atmospheric pool of carbon dioxide, the release of carbon in fires."
8 Comments so far
Show AllIf the trees did not burn they would eventually decompose and as the bacteria consumed them most of the carbon would end up being released into the air. Only a small part of the carbon would get buried and become coal a million years hence.
The forest which burned was part of the atmospheric carbon cycle anyways thus not a big deal in terms of global warming; unlike digging up a smaller amount of carbon and adding it to the atmospheric carbon cycle.
Gregory
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
Benjamin Franklin
No you are mistaken, if it didn't burn the carbon in the forest would remain stable as new trees grow as the old ones die. It's not about turning carbon into coal, it is about having healthy forests that hold massive amounts of carbon. Certainly on a time frame of several years to a decade, this fire does boost atmospheric carbon, at least until this forest grows back.
True that fire is a natural part of many forest ecosystems, the questions are one: are fires larger and more devastating because of human activities? Certainly true in the US west, i'm unfamiliar with Australian forests. And two: are the forests regrowing, or is desertification spreading? This is the ultimate loss of forest carbon into the atmosphere. Again don't have specifics on desertification in Oz, but i do know it is spreading worldwide...
The carbon in those trees was locked up in the last few hundred years. The problem is us burning fossil fuels, releasing the carbon that was locked up millions of years ago.
True fossil fuel is the main source of the changes in atmospheric carbon that are the main driver of climate disruption, BUT - destroying forests is hugely disruptive in its own right, and at this point of crisis we need to protect and nurture and spread forests as much as we can, to hold carbon AND for lost of other reasons - maintaining the hydrological cycle, protecting soils, biodiversity, etc etc etc.
Destroying old-growth forests is a massive issue - some species of tree take centuries to reach maturity.
Bushfires and eucalypt trees are a different issue. Gum trees are adapted for burning. In a matter of weeks or even days, the stumps send out suckers and commence a growth spurt.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
The carbon wasn't locked up over hundreds of years - gum trees don't live that long. The problem is enormous seams of coal being mined - coal that was laid down when the world was a hot, wet, jungle.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
The area where the Victoria fires occurred are home to the Mountain Ash which is a dominant feature of the tall forests in Victoria. 'Tis the world's tallest flowering plant, growing rapidly at a rate of 1 metre per year to reach heights of 100 metres. The tallest individual ever recorded reached 140 metres. The only other species that comes a close second in height is the Californian Redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens). The buttresses of the Mountain Ash can be more than 15 metres in circumference. The lowest branches usually begin 30 metres off the ground.
Mountain Ash can live for up to 500 years. Other than old age, fire is the only other common cause of death in Mountain Ash. Characteristics that cause this tree to be fire sensitive include the long ribbons of hanging bark and the extreme combustibility of the foliage. After a fire, the area will regenerate to Mountain Ash as the burnt ground and direct sunlight serves as an ideal seed bed for seed that falls from the scorched crowns.
PaulM, Eucalyptus Camaldulensis (redgum) is one species alone that can live hundreds and even a thousand years and many do, trapping carbon for centuries. Redgums can have a diameter of 15 meters and stand over 90metres tall. The leaves and twigs that fall over centuries get locked into the soil structure or fall in the water and are trapped this way as well. Our largest redgum forest is on the Murray River and has Redgums in there that make people look insignificant. I don't know where you got your facts from.