Forest fires in 2023 burned about 400 million hectares, killed more than 250 people and released 6.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

This year, the American continent witnessed a record forest fire season that destroyed 80 million hectares (as of December 23), more than one and a half times the area of ​​Spain, and an increase of 10 million more than the average for the same period from 2012-2022, according to the Global Fire Information Management System.

Canada’s wildfires were primarily responsible for this increase. This year, forest fires destroyed 18 million hectares, or a third of the area of ​​mainland France.

Pauline Phelan-Carlotti, a geographer and fire specialist, told AFP that fires fueled by drier and hotter conditions caused by climate change “cannot be controlled” through “a fire suppression policy that has proven ineffective.”

She added, “We are no longer able to deal with (forest fires) in the current circumstances with available human means, and from here comes the importance of working from the root of the problem through prevention.”

The year 2023 was the deadliest year in the twenty-first century due to forest fires, according to the International Disaster Database of the University of Louvain, with at least 250 deaths recorded: 97 dead and 31 missing in the Hawaiian fires in August, 34 dead in Algeria, and at least 26 in Greece.

Phelan-Carlotti said that number “may rise in the coming years” as fires “dangerously approach urban areas.” In August, the tourist town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui was almost completely destroyed.

This year, in addition to areas usually prone to fires such as the Mediterranean basin (Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria…), North America and Australia, other regions were devastated by fires such as Hawaii and Tenerife. This would increase the number of people at risk.

As the number of fires increases, there is less time for plants to grow and forests lose their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. “Recent studies estimate that fires reduce the storage of carbon, which is a greenhouse gas, by about 10%,” explained Solene Turquetty, a researcher at Latmos, a laboratory that specializes in studying physical and chemical processes in the Earth’s atmosphere.

In addition, through burning, trees release all the carbon dioxide they have stored.

But the effect is relative. Since the beginning of the year, forest fires have released about 6.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide, according to the Global Fire Information Management System, compared to 36.8 billion tons from the use of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal…) and cement.

Overall, about 80 percent of the carbon released by wildfires is reabsorbed by plants that grow again the following season. The remaining percentage contributes to enhancing the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which will exacerbate climate warming.

In addition to carbon dioxide, forest and vegetation fires release a range of harmful particles, from carbon monoxide to a long chain of other gases or aerosols (ash, black carbon, organic carbon…).

“These emissions change the air quality, even hundreds of kilometers away when the fires are more intense,” Turcetti explained, noting an “immediate health impact” in addition to “the destruction of ecosystems and infrastructure.”

A study published by the specialized journal Nature in September showed that residents of the poorest countries, especially in Central Africa, are more vulnerable to air pollution resulting from these fires than residents of developed countries.

Africa has been the continent most affected by forest fires since the beginning of the year, with about 212 million hectares burned, but Pauline Villain-Carlotti said that “great importance should not be given to these African fires,” because this number does not reflect “huge forest fires.”

Rather, it is a large number of small “agricultural burning” operations, which are “traditional practices that do not harm the wooded areas because they are controlled and controlled” and are carried out periodically, according to the specialist, adding that they affect the local flora and fauna, but in the medium term “the trees will grow again, which… It allows the renewal of vegetation and increased flower diversity.