Forest fires increasing carbon dioxide emissions in atmosphere

Carbon dioxide emissions from the 2021 forest fires in Manavgat, a district in Türkiye's resort city of Antalya, accounted for 2% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions that year, said an ecologist on Thursday.

The 2021 Manavgat forest fire released 9.3 million tons of CO2, 27,000 tons of methane, and 1.5 tons of nitrous oxide emissions, according to Türkiye's National Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory, Doğanay Tolunay, a professor at the Istanbul University, told Anadolu.

These emissions were approximately 65% of the waste-related emissions and about 12% of the industrial emissions.

Tolunay said burning 1 hectare of dense forest could result in approximately 150 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, depending on factors such as fire intensity, forest density, and the amount of dry grass and leaves underneath.

Tolunay pointed out the growing wildfire risk with climate change, stressing that wildfires now spread faster and are more intense under hotter and drier conditions.

He emphasized the need for a new approach to firefighting compared to a decade ago.