Why are forests burning? Experts named the reason for the deterioration of the fire situation on the planet

Forest fires are a serious disaster that is dangerous for the population and causes a serious blow to the economy. But nature gets the worst damage from burning forests. The restoration of the green cover of the planet may take centuries, or maybe, thanks to us, it will never happen. Why are forests burning and whose fault is it?

This summer, the fire is raging not only in the east of Russia, but also in the north of the Scandinavian Peninsula, in Alaska and even in Greenland. Scientists say that summer forest fires caused by thunderstorms are a completely normal phenomenon. But this year the fires have taken on a catastrophic scale, which is becoming threatening.

Mark Parrington, who works as a fire expert at the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (SMAC), claims that the situation in the summer of 2019 can rightfully be called unprecedented. Columns of smoke over the fire zones are visible even from space, and smog has covered vast territories and enveloped settlements.

In Russia, in some places, traces of smoke in the air can be seen without special equipment in 6 time zones from the gorenje zone! The SMAC found that only in June 50 megatons of carbon dioxide were released into the air. This is comparable to the amount of gas released by some European countries, for example, Sweden, for a whole year.

For the Arctic, summer forest fires are an integral phenomenon of the ecosystem that existed long before man appeared on Earth. But now, due to global warming, fires are becoming more intense every year and are taking over huge areas.

Why is the Arctic burning the most? Mark Parrington explains this by saying that it is in this zone that the greenhouse effect is most noticeable. Simply put, the polar regions suffer primarily from human actions, while they are the hardest to recover from cataclysms.

Forest fires on our planet on July 25, 2019

Now satellites are monitoring the spread of fire in the northern regions. It has already been established that the flame released the reserves of methane and carbon dioxide accumulated over thousands of years. Fires caused by warming further increase the temperature in the Arctic. This is not only due to the release of large volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but also due to the deposition of ash fires on the Arctic ice, which play an important role in the mechanism of thermoregulation of the Arctic.

It's all the fault of carbon dioxide, produced unrestrainedly by our civilization. It plays an important role in the thermoregulation of the Earth, as it retains heat. But human activity has led to the fact that the delicate balance has been disrupted and now the concentration of carbon dioxide is the highest in 800 thousand years.

The main reason for the increase in the amount of gas is the burning of hydrocarbon fuel. In the last few decades, intensive deforestation and emissions from the soil surface have also been added to significant factors. Arctic fires are the last important factor that has forced us to reckon with ourselves this year.

Did you know that most of the most environmentally disadvantaged cities in Russia are located in the Arctic and Siberia?