14 DAY TRIAL // Burning biomasses are now proven to be partly responsible for global warming, although up until recently it was believed that lighter particles released by forest fires might in fact have a cooling effect.
Given the fact that during the past few months several parts of the world have been destroyed by massive wildfires, it is no wonder that researchers wish to know exactly what the link between these and global warming is.
Thus, Dr. Chul E. Chung from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, together with his team, looked into this matter and finally developed a rather alarming theory.
According to their research, the warming effect of global black carbon is roughly 85% stronger than initially calculated back in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
For those unaware, it seems that the carbonaceous aerosols which result from wildfires are made up of dark particles, responsible for absorbing heat (together they form black carbon), and lighter colored particles (organic carbon), whose job is to reflect heat back into space and thus somehow cancel the overall warming.
However, Dr. Chul E. Chung's study indicates that even some of these lighter particles might sometimes begin to absorb heat, which means that in the end forest fires fuel climate change to some extent.
Dr. Ramanathan, one other specialist involved in this study, told the press that, “We now know that the net effect of the lighter particles is about zero, meaning there is no significant cooling to offset the warming from black carbon particles from fires.”
ENN also quotes the President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in the US, Durwood Zaelke, who supposedly explained how, “The record-breaking wildfires in the western United States are part of a vicious circle amplified by global warming. Climate change dries the forests and fuels the fires, and the fires fuel climate change.”
From where we stand, this is indeed a particularly tricky situation, especially given the fact that, as of lately, more and more forest fires have been taking their toll on various parts of the globe.