what are the ecological consequences?

From the South-West to Brittany, via the Var, the French forest was consumed during the summer. In total, more than 65,000 hectares went up in smoke, with serious consequences for the environment. Indeed, the fires give off smoke loaded with greenhouse gases, which aggravates global warming. “In the hours following the fire, there is a lot of particle release, and gases such as carbon monoxide, which will remain in the atmosphere for a relatively short time. (…) In a second step, there is CO2 which will also accumulate, and it will remain in the atmosphere for a very long time, several decades”explains Cathy Clerbaux, research director at the CNRS and atmospheric physicist.

In the summer of 2022 alone in France, one million tonnes of CO2 were released into the atmosphere by the fires, i.e. the annual carbon footprint of 100,000 French people. The figure is all the more worrying as the burned plants can no longer play their role as carbon sinks. Normally, the forest absorbs CO2 and releases oxygen atoms. Some trees swept away by fires were centuries old, and it will take decades without fires to regenerate ecosystems.