Climate change creates wildfires, wildfires create climate change
Photo of a wildfire (Image from the PLOS website (cc:by))
During wildfires, huge amounts of nitrous oxide is given off into the atmosphere. “On a molecule-per-molecule basis, nitrous oxide is three hundred times more potent than carbon dioxide,” biologist Bruce Hungate told Living on Earth’s Bruce Gellerman. “That’s a very potent greenhouse gas.”
Those greenhouse gases released during fires can lead to more climate change, which, in turn, can lead to more wildfires. Hungate says, “when we look at things like fire, having more greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere appears to make a longer fire season, a more intense fire season, more likely. The fact that we’re seeing some of those effects now is exactly consistent with what we expect from climate change.”
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