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The Chuckegg Creek wildfire burns near High Level, Alberta, Canada on June 1, 2019.Pierre Markuse / Flickr
The Arctic is known for its icy expanses, frozen tundra and huge floating glaciers. Do not burn forest fires.
But in the middle of a record summer, the Arctic is burning.
Last month, mega corporations razed the northernmost part of Russia and Greenland.
In Alaska, meanwhile, 2.4 million acres of forest have burned this year. In June and July, Swan Lake fire plumes (visible on the satellite image below) engulfed Anchorage. In the middle of the 4th of July smoke, the city knew its hottest day of recorded history: 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius).
These flames were large enough to be seen from space: on July 24, colossal columns of smoke were visible over Russia, Alaska and Greenland simultaneously.
To this day, parts of British Columbia, Canada and Alaska are still burning, while more than 13.5 million acres of Siberia are in flames.
Forest fires are raging near Batagay in the district of Sakha Republic, Russia, on June 11, 2019.Pierre Markuse / Flickr
The link between fires and climate change
Forest fires and heat waves can not be directly related to climate change, but accelerated warming increases their probability, size and frequency.
July was the hottest month ever recorded. The previous month, meanwhile, was the hottest June in the history of the Earth, with temperatures near 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Two heat waves hit Europe, killing dozens of people.
Read more: At least 20 people have died from the extreme heat of Europe. The Arctic catches fire. That's what climate change looks like.
Overall, this year is about to be the third warmest ever, according to Climate Central. Last year was the fourth warmest, behind 2016 (the hottest), 2015 and 2017. Last year was also the hottest year ever recorded for the world's oceans.
Swan Lake, located five miles northeast of Sterling, Alaska, was on fire on June 29, 2019.Pierre Markuse / Flickr
This warming can be linked to greenhouse gas emissions. When heat-trapping gases such as carbon and methane enter the atmosphere (they are emitted when we burn fossil fuels, among other human activities), they capture more heat from the sun on the planet , resulting in an increase in the Earth's surface temperature.
This NASA graph illustrates the trend.
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The hot, dry conditions in the northern hemisphere are a consequence of this unprecedented warming. In fact, warming causes the snow to melt earlier in the winter, and warmer air sucks the moisture from the trees and the soil, creating a drier soil. Decreased precipitation also contributes to dry forests prone to fire.
Together, this has created ideal conditions for forest fires in the Arctic.
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service of the European Union said its team had observed more than 100 intense and long-lasting fires in the Arctic Circle since the beginning of June.
A forest fire in the Qeqqata Kommunia region in Greenland, July 14, 2019.Flickr / Pierre Markuse
"Climate change, with rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, increases the risk of forest fires and prolongs the season," the World Meteorological Organization wrote.
Forest fires are more likely now – and also bigger
In the western United States, the average season of forest fires lasts 78 days longer than 50 years ago, likely due to climate change, reported the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
The fires are growing too. A recent study found that the portion of California burned each year by forest fires has increased five-fold since 1972.
Twelve of the 15 largest fires in the history of the state have occurred since the year 2000.
Shayanne Gal / Business Insider
In the United States, large forest fires burn more than twice the area of 1970.
"Despite all our efforts, the fires will continue to increase, and the reason is really clear," said climatologist Park Williams at the Center for Climate and Life at Columbia University. "The climate really plays the game in terms of what burns."
What's happening in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic
Smoke of forest fires near Fairbanks, Alaska, seen from space on July 8, 2019.Pierre Markuse / Flickr
Forest fires in the Arctic cause less damage to infrastructure and homes than, say, fires in California, but they release incredible amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Indeed, fires in forests and Arctic tundra are generally left to burn except if they threaten cities or agglomerations. They can therefore consume hundreds of thousands of acres of vegetation. When the soil burns, the carbon dioxide that was previously trapped in the Earth is released into the air.
Data collected by the Copernicus program show that fires in the Arctic in June released as much carbon dioxide in a month as the entire Swedish country in a year.
This influx of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is leading the planet to heat up even more, increasing the likelihood that such fires in the Arctic will reoccur in the future.
It's a perilous feedback loop.
Several forest fires burn near Verkhoyansk and Batagay in the Russian Republic of Sakha on June 19, 2019.Pierre Markuse / Flickr
"I hear sometimes say that there are not many people in the Arctic, so why can not we let it burn, why is it important?", A said NASA researcher Liz Hoy in a report. "But what is happening in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic – there are global connections with the changes that are happening there."
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