By Jordan Omstead Most of the carbon emitted by Canada’s record 2023 wildfires came not from burning trees, but from peat and soil, according to a new study that warns a warming climate is making the country’s vast underground carbon deposits increasingly vulnerable to fire. The study says it estimates, for the first time, that about 76 per cent of those emissions came from burning peat and soil, while the rest was trees and other aboveground vegetation. As wildfires become larger and more intense, long-term carbon stored in peatlands and soils could become a growing source of greenhouse-gas emissions, the study warns, contributing to a feedback loop in which global warming fuels fires and fires fuel further warming. “As Canada stores about one\u2010fifth of the world’s soil organic carbon, these… <\/p>\n
By Jordan Omstead Most of the carbon emitted by Canada’s record 2023 wildfires came not from burning trees, but from peat and soil, according to a new study that warns a warming climate is making the country’s vast underground carbon deposits increasingly vulnerable to fire. The study says it estimates, for the first time, that about 76 per cent of those emissions came from burning peat and soil, while the rest was trees and other aboveground vegetation. As wildfires become larger and more intense, long-term carbon stored in peatlands and soils could become a growing source of greenhouse-gas emissions, the study warns, contributing to a feedback loop in which global warming fuels fires and fires fuel further warming. “As Canada stores about one\u2010fifth of the world’s soil organic carbon, these... <\/p>\n