Forest fires in the Far North

[Erring Flatley]

As I sit in the computer lab at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, the sky about the hill upon which the school sits is surrounded by smoke. At times usable vision here has been limited to 100 to 50 feet. And the forecast from the National Weather Service has called repeatedly for \"dense smoke\". This year more than 5,000,000 acres of forest in northern Alaska has gone up in smoke, more than any other year on record. I am not sure of the exact percentage, but it might be 5% of the total forest north of the Alaska Range. There is clear ecological evidence that as the carbon dioxide levels of the atmosphere have increased, the belt of CO2 about the Earth has moved further and further north bringing levels of CO2 to the north that have not been seen here in eons. The question in the minds of many is: Are the increased levels of carbon dioxide responsible for the rate of forest fire?

[Ryth]

I am currently working in Dawson City and the forest fire situation has been much the same here as you say it has been in Alaska. Weather or not this is due to the increasing carbon dioxide levels is a matter of debate, but I believe these same rising CO2 levels may be the cause for the warmer winters that the locals in both White Horse and Dawson City are commenting on. These warmer winters may be inadvertently one of the causes of these forest fires. I am not sure as I would have to research the CO2 levels and other ecological changes on the Yukon\'s environment. Also, to determine if CO2 causes forest fires you should check the records of Alaska and the Yukon to determin if there were the same amount of forest fires, on average, before the rise in CO2 levels. :fresh:

[Xerxes314]

According to the stories I read, the record fires were started by a single week of intense lightning storms. They were exacerbated by the warm summer, but who knows if that\'s due to CO2 or not? Here in New York, we\'ve had one of the coolest summers in a long time.

Xerxes

[Erring Flatley]

Originally posted by Ryth
:fresh: Would you like to meet at the border and discuss that more fully?

[Edited on 9-8-2004 by Erring Flatley]