– There’s a lot of traffic. The smoke is quite thick. We have masks in the car, Carolyn Campbell told the AP news agency.

She and 25,000 others are fleeing Jasper National Park in Alberta, one of many places where the flames are raging.

On Thursday, flames reached the small alpine village of Jasper, causing damage to buildings. The wildfires are the largest to ever hit the town, the regional newspaper writes. Edmonton Journal.

Large and intense wildfires have been burning throughout the spring and summer in Canada, Russia and Alaska.

The fires are causing large amounts of harmful smoke and greenhouse gas emissions, reports the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (Cams), part of the EU Climate Service.

It is normal that there are fires inside the boreal forest in summer, point out researchers who have been closely monitoring the fires for several years.

– During this period, we noticed particularly extreme wildfire emissions and atmospheric impacts, particularly in Canada, eastern Russia and the Arctic, says lead researcher Mark Perrington of Cams.

– Current wildfires are already reaching record levels in some areas. With half of summer still to go, we expect more extreme fire emissions, he says.

This is how much fires release

In Canada, the wildfires have occurred mainly in the western part of the country, in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Recently, it has spread to neighbouring regions such as Alaska, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan.

In Russia, fires broke out in the Sakha region, the Amur region and the Zabaykalsky Krai region in June and July.

Cams has the following estimates for June emissions through July 15.

• The Amur fires alone account for 17.2 megatons of carbon.
• From British Columbia, it’s 11.08 megatons
• From Alberta, it’s 12.23 megatons

The researchers measure emissions in carbon rather than CO₂ because they also look at the effect on air quality. But there are about 90 percent direct CO₂ emissions, says Johannes Kaiser, senior researcher at NILU.

By comparison, Norway’s emissions for the whole of 2023 were 46.6 megatonnes, or million tonnes, of CO2 equivalent.

Fires and emissions are still well below the record year of 2023.

How much CO₂ can the forest store?

Fires are a natural part of the boreal forest and play an important role in the ecosystem. In a stable, healthy state, emissions from wildfires will be absorbed as plants and trees grow back. The forest stores more carbon than it emits.

An important question is what happens to this balance when human-induced climate change contributes to wildfires.

– When the Arctic warms and the climate is warmer in the boreal region, with higher temperatures and less precipitation, you get periods of drought. And then you get an area that is more exposed to fire, says NILU’s Kaiser.

The Arctic is also warming faster than the rest of the Earth.

– This is why we encounter these situations in higher latitudes, such as in Siberia and Canada.

Drought and fires can also affect the growth capacity of trees and plants in the forest, and therefore their ability to absorb CO₂, Kaiser says.

– What happens with climate change is that the forest no longer grows back in the same conditions as before, he says.

Forest fire risk in Norway

The risk of forest fires is also increasing in northern Norway these days.

– It’s the same mechanism, but on a completely different scale, Kaiser says.

Smoke from wildfires contains particles and is dangerous to inhale because it can travel into lung tissue or the bloodstream.

Last year, smoke from massive forest fires in Canada reached Norway. But after a long journey, the effect on air quality was small, Kaiser says.

The fires currently raging in our Russian neighbour Russia will not harm the Norwegians either. It is blowing west and will affect the populations of Asia.

Recommends building “fire smart”

The Canadian CBC spoke to several experts on how the country should prepare for and adapt to future intense wildfires.

Authorities should help people make their homes fireproof and all future buildings should be built in a “fire-smart” way.

People should remove leaves and other flammable materials from their property. Perhaps the ability to travel freely in exposed nature should also be limited. Often, a small spark is enough to start a catastrophic fire.

Major infrastructure projects should also be studied in terms of fire safety and vulnerability.

Better controlled fires, which remove highly flammable materials from the forest floor, can help prevent wildfires. Authorities should also draw on the expertise of local and indigenous people, who know vulnerable areas best, experts say.