Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
Forest fires happen every year, and if left alone the same amount of carbon gets trapped by trees growing in clearances caused by fires in the previous years. So in essence forest fires do not add to the carbon in the atmosphere.
Unless the fires are used to clear land for other purposes, as sadly happens on a large scale. Then the land won't recapture the same amount of carbon in the coming years.
But that carbon addition is caused by human activity and should be accounted as such.
So if half the forest fires are to clear land, 4B of CO2 should be added to the 45B tally for human activuity, and the other 4B can be wiped as it is compensated by reforestation.
|
Right - and when trees die and the rot - they release the carbon anyway. So, overall natural wildfires do not add carbon to the air. And the natural cycling of the carbon is the same.