Australia's Fires Likely Emitted as Much Carbon as All Planes
An unprecedented fire season will likely add as much as 900 million metric tons to Australia’s greenhouse-gas output in 2019.
Firefighters prepare as a bushfire approaches homes on the outskirts of the town of Bargo, on Dec. 21.
Photographer: David Gray/Getty ImagesThe fires sweeping Australia probably have doubled the nation’s annual greenhouse-gas emissions, producing as much climate-damaging pollution as all the airplanes in the world, new research shows.
The bushfires likely contributed 900 million metric tons of carbon emissions, according to early estimates from scientists behind the Global Fire Emissions Database. That compares with 532 million tons of emissions from Australia for the year through June and about 918 million tons that the International Council on Clean Transportation counted from commercial aircraft worldwide in 2018.