Siberian Forest Firest Linked To Climate Change - 2003 Fires Alone Burned 15,000 Sq. Miles

[hatrack]

Devastating forest fires in Siberia that send a pall of smoke worldwide are happening more frequently because of climate change and in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, scientists claim.

In Central Siberia alone fires destroyed 15,000 square miles in 2003, triggering plumes which were linked with air pollution measured as far away as America. The forest fires send as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as the total EU reduction commitment under the Kyoto protocol. In the Journal of Climate, an international team concludes that Siberian fires are influenced by climate change. The study was led by the Professor Heiko Balzter of the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester.

Prof Balzter said "Last century a typical forest in Siberia had about 100 years after a fire to recover before it burned again. But new observations by Russian scientist Dr Vyacheslav Kharuk have shown that fire now returns more frequently, about every 65 years. At the same time annual temperatures in Siberia have risen by almost two degrees Celsius, about twice as fast as the global average. And since 1990 the warming of Siberia has become even faster than before."

"Siberia is a hotspot in the global climate system. Because the Siberian ecosystems are largely temperature controlled the region is strongly affected by global warming," said Prof Balzter. "Large amounts of greenhouse gases are currently locked in the permafrost and in organic soils, and if released could accelerate the greenhouse effect."

EDIT

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/01/scisiberia101.xml

[Robson]

1. Linkage between forest fires and climate change

This is something that I've been concerned about also, yet this is the first time I've ever seen it mentioned in the media. Is there linkage between the seemingly endless forest fires and climate change?

Could this become a nightmare scenario where climate change spawns drought and hotter temps, which spawns more fires, which spawns release of more CO2 and greenhouse gases, and further impacts climate change? The result would be an acceleration in the rate of change which could mean we'd see major problems much sooner than anticipated.

This...while the chimp-in-chief and US Chamber of Commerce worry about their short term profits.