Forests burning at alarming rates in Canada, Russia
1. Forests burning at alarming rates in Canada, Russia
This satellite map shows how the production of oil from tar sands has contributed to widespread loss
of forest cover in Canada.
Fires are ravaging the forests of Russia and Canada, burning at a higher rate in some cases than at
2. any time in the past 10,000 years.
High-resolution satellite maps from Global Forest Watch showed the two nations lost a combined
average of nearly 6.8 million hectares (26,000 square miles) per year between 2011 and 2013. That
equates to an area equivalent to the size of Ireland.
"This new data shows in detail how Russia and Canada have faced a massive spike in tree cover
loss," said Nigel Sizer, the global director of forest programs for the World Resources Institute,
which is the lead organization in Global Forest Watch.
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The new data comes from the University of Maryland and Google, and represent the largest and
most up-to-date global data set for tree cover loss available to researchers.
"These forests and soils contain vast carbon stocks so losses represents a significant contribution to
the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change," he said. "As we head toward the
pivotal 2015 climate summit in Paris, more attention is needed (to manage) and monitor boreal
forests."
The researchers said about 70 percent of the tree cover loss was blamed on fires - some driven by
the warmer temperatures brought by climate change - as well as pests like pine beetles that have
laid waste to huge chunks of evergreen forests.
Bigger than the Amazon, these so-called boreal forests, located in the far north latitudes, are the
largest terrestrial ecosystem in the world. The fires not only destroy forests but also torch the
peatlands that anchor parts of these forests. That, in turn, releases huge amounts of carbon into the