Global alarm on climate change continues

Specialists indicate that in 2020 the fire season in the Arctic unusually started at the beginning of the year, since in May those natural disasters were reported north of the tree line in Siberia, which normally occurs after July.

By the end of August the flames had emitted a record of 244 megatons of carbon dioxide, 35 percent more than in 2019, when records were also set, the article sets out.

The situation implies that individual wildfires have been active for longer than usual and in landscapes that were thought to be fire resistant, explains Jessica McCarty, an assistant professor in the US Department of Geography at the University of Miami.

In her opinion, it is possible that the peat fires (light and spongy coal that forms in marshy places) were burning under the ice and snow all winter, and then emerged in the spring.

In the face of such disruption, historically frozen carbon-rich soils are forecast to melt as the planet warms, making them even more vulnerable to wildfires and more likely to release large amounts of carbon, experts warn.

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