Source: Rise in extreme wildfires linked directly to emissions from oil companies in new study | CBC News
As fires blaze in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C., new research has drawn a direct and measurable link between carbon emissions traced back to the world’s major fossil fuel producers and the increase in extreme wildfires across western Canada and the United States.
The peer-reviewed study, published last week in the journal Environmental Research Letters, found that 37 per cent of the total burned forest area in Western Canada and the United States between 1986-2021 can be traced back to 88 major fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers.
“What we found is that the emissions from these companies have dramatically increased wildfire activity,” said Carly Phillips, co-author on the study and a researcher at the Science Hub for Climate Litigation at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The findings build on previous studies that have quantified the contribution of those same 88 companies to the increase in global temperatures, and others that have shown how a climate-driven “vapour pressure deficit” (VPD) — a measure of the atmosphere’s drying power — has contributed to the increased area of forest burned in Western Canada and the U.S.
Leave a Reply