Wildfires: a devastating 2023

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: JESSE LARRIVIERE / SOCIETE DE PROTECTION DES FORÊTS / AFP 10:41 a.m., December 27, 2023

Deadly and uncontrollable: In 2023, wildfires destroyed nearly 400 million hectares, killed more than 250 people and released 6.5 billion tons of CO2.

History in Canada

The American continent has experienced a record-breaking wildfire season this year, with nearly 80 million hectares burned (as of December 23), more than one and a half times the area of Spain, 10 million more than the 2012-2022 annual average on the same date, according to the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS). At the origin of this surge in figures: Canada, with 18 million hectares gone up in smoke this year, or a third of metropolitan France.

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The fires - fuelled by drier and hotter conditions caused by climate change - are "uncontrollable" with "an extinguishing policy that has proven ineffective", Pauline Vilain-Carlotti, a doctor of geography and specialist in fires, told AFP. "We are no longer able to cope, in the current conditions, with our human resources to fight, hence the importance of acting rather upstream, on prevention, rather than downstream, on fight and extinction," she continues.

A Deadly Year

Ninety-seven dead and 31 missing in fires in Hawaii in August, 34 killed in Algeria, at least 26 in Greece... The year was the deadliest of the 21st century according to the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) of the Catholic University of Louvain with more than 250 deaths. "An excess mortality that is likely to increase in the years to come", with fires "coming dangerously close to urbanised areas", notes Pauline Vilain-Carlotti. In August, the tourist town of Lahaina on Maui in Hawaii was all but razed to the ground.

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And this year, in addition to the usually exposed areas such as the Mediterranean basin (Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, etc.), North America and Australia, other regions, so far more preserved, such as Hawaii or Tenerife, have been devastated. Increasing the number of people at risk and hitting the most vulnerable populations.

Six billion tonnes of CO2

As fires become more frequent, vegetation has less time to grow back, and forests could lose their ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). "Recent studies estimate that fires reduce carbon storage by about 10%," explains Solène Turquety, a researcher at LATMOS (Laboratory of Atmospheres, Environments, Space Observations). In addition, when burning, trees suddenly release all the CO2 - greenhouse gases - they have stored into the atmosphere.

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However, the impact is relative: since the beginning of the year, forest fires have released some 6.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide according to the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), compared to 36.8 billion for the use of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, etc.) and cement. Typically, about 80% of the carbon generated by wildfires is then re-absorbed by vegetation that grows back the following season. The remaining 20%, on the other hand, contributes to the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, fuelling global warming in a kind of vicious circle.

Immediate health effect

In addition to CO2, forest and vegetation fires release a whole series of harmful particles, from carbon monoxide CO to a long series of other gases or aerosols (ash, soot carbon, organic carbon, etc.). "These emissions strongly alter air quality, over hundreds of kilometres for the most intense fires," explains Solène Turquety, pointing to "an immediate health effect" which is added to "the destruction of ecosystems, goods and infrastructure".

According to a study published in September in the journal Nature, people in the poorest countries, primarily in Central Africa, are much more exposed to the air pollution caused by these fires than those in developed countries.

The special case of Africa

Africa is the continent with the most hectares that have gone up in smoke since the beginning of the year (nearly 212 million) but for Pauline Vilain-Carlotti, we should not "give too much weight to these African fires" because this figure does not reflect "large forest fires". Rather, it is a question of many small "agricultural burns", "traditional practices that are not particularly harmful to wooded areas because they are controlled, controlled" and carried out on a rotating basis, the specialist explains.

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They have an impact on the local flora and fauna, but in the medium term "the trees will start again, generally allowing a rejuvenation" of the vegetation and an increase in floristic diversity, she adds. The potential for regeneration of burned areas depends on the frequency of fires on the same plot and the intensity of the fires.