Wildfires
One might expect that global warming would result in increased area burned by wildfires each year. My chart of estimated global area burned by wildfires does indeed show an increasing pattern mid-20th century when the pattern changed to decreasing area burned world-wide. A reminder that my charts use smoothed data so year to year variance is reduced so as to emphasize underlying trends.
It is surprising that global warming no longer results in increasing area burned by wildfires each year. Presumably the area burned is limited by long term damage from prior burns and by land use change, especially domestication of wild lands for agriculture. Nonetheless one certainly expects to see more frequent and more intense fires.
Note that humans do cause a significant portion of so called 'wildfires' both by accident and by purposeful intent. Nonetheless wildfires are not included as anthropogenic.
2018 Update: 2017 exceeded 2016 but data smoothing shows falling long term pattern. I have changed from annual trend line to smoothed trend line so as to better show the underlying trend patterns. Forecast uncertainty shows we could go either way increasing or decreasing.
It is surprising that global warming no longer results in increasing area burned by wildfires each year. Presumably the area burned is limited by long term damage from prior burns and by land use change, especially domestication of wild lands for agriculture. Nonetheless one certainly expects to see more frequent and more intense fires.
Note that humans do cause a significant portion of so called 'wildfires' both by accident and by purposeful intent. Nonetheless wildfires are not included as anthropogenic.
2018 Update: 2017 exceeded 2016 but data smoothing shows falling long term pattern. I have changed from annual trend line to smoothed trend line so as to better show the underlying trend patterns. Forecast uncertainty shows we could go either way increasing or decreasing.
Addendum re Greenhouse Gas Release from Wildfires
Widefires most certainly release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Reportedly the more frequent fires occur and also the more intense, the more GHGs are released. In addition any live vegetation killed during any fire event will no longer be removing CO2 from the atmosphere until replacement vegetation has re-established, so there is both direct and indirect impact on atmospheric GHGs.
There have always been wildfires, so there always been associated release of GHGs. During pre-indistrial eras mankind contributions of GHG to the atmosphere have been just a fraction of those from wildfires. But in this modern industrial era mankind is emitting several times the mass of GHGs emitted by wildfires. Hence climate change!
Widefires most certainly release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Reportedly the more frequent fires occur and also the more intense, the more GHGs are released. In addition any live vegetation killed during any fire event will no longer be removing CO2 from the atmosphere until replacement vegetation has re-established, so there is both direct and indirect impact on atmospheric GHGs.
There have always been wildfires, so there always been associated release of GHGs. During pre-indistrial eras mankind contributions of GHG to the atmosphere have been just a fraction of those from wildfires. But in this modern industrial era mankind is emitting several times the mass of GHGs emitted by wildfires. Hence climate change!