It is too easy, when looking at the forest fires in southern Europe and many parts of the world, to simply point out that climate change is causing more forest fires.
Unfortunately, the opposite conclusion also applies, namely that more of the huge forest fires cause larger amounts of CO2 to be emitted.
For Italy, the UN organization FAO estimated that burning one square kilometer of forest immediately releases 20,000 tons of CO2, later even more from the biomass of the soil.
If a tree burns, the CO2 is released that was stored there for 20, 40 or 80 years of life.
If thousands of square kilometers burn in Russia, Brazil, North America or southern Europe, this has consequences for the climate balance.
Unfortunately, the subject of forest fires has its own cycle of consternation: if the fire is there in summer, there is little that can be done in the short term.
Everything is quickly forgotten in autumn.
One measure to protect the climate would also be to better prevent the fires.
Because the next (fire) summer is sure to come.