Fires in Spain and Morocco produce record carbon emissions

Forest fires in June and July this year in Spain is at Morocco produced record carbon emissions.

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, it is the highest level for the period since 2003.

Wildfires have swept across parts of southern Europe and northern Africa, killing hundreds of people, forcing thousands to flee their homes and spewing clouds of health-damaging pollution and greenhouse gases.

At Spain, were produced 1.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions from June to July 17, the most June-July in any year since the start of the Copernicus dataset in 2003.

With more than 30 active fires this Tuesday (19), the Spain has already surpassed its previous record of 1.1 million tonnes of carbon emissions in June-July 2012.

“Emissions for Spain are already the largest in the last 20 years,” Copernicus senior scientist Mark Parrington told Reuters.

Morocco also set a new record: there were 480,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from forest fires in June-July this year, the highest during the period in the last two decades.

Copernicus counts all the carbon emitted by fires, including greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

Climate change is exacerbating hot, dry conditions, which spur fires to spread faster and burn longer—meaning they spew more greenhouse gases that warm the planet and more pollutants that cause cardiovascular and cardiovascular problems. breathing.