Worst July on record for wildfires

 From The Guardian

Last month was the world’s worst July for wildfires since at least 2003 when satellite records began, scientists have said, as swaths of North America, Siberia, Africa and southern Europe continue to burn.

Driven by extreme heat and prolonged drought, the ignition of forests and grasslands released 343 megatonnes of carbon, about a fifth higher than the previous global peak for July, which was set in 2014.

“This stands out by a clear margin,” said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist in the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, which estimates the carbon releases. “The July global total this year is the highest since our records began in 2003.”

The unprecedented mid-summer burn is the latest in a series of unwelcome recent records that underscore the destructive impacts of human-driven global heating.

More than half of the carbon came from two regions – North America and Siberia – that have experienced unusually hot and dry weather. In western Canada and the US, forest fires have followed protracted and intense heatwaves. In Siberia, much of the taiga in the Sakha Republic has been engulfed in flames and clouds of toxic smoke that have drifted as far as the north pole.

The global conflagration is widening to the eastern and central Mediterranean, where many nations are encountering an unusually fierce start to the fire season.

Last week, the heat intensity from fires in Turkey was four times higher than the previous daily national record. So far this year, 128,000 hectares (316,000 acres) have burned – eight times higher than the average, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

What will it take for our politicians to stop pocketing bribes from fossil fuels companies to do something about slashing emissions?