Wildfire smoke rises above homes in Bedford, Canada
Reuters/Eric Martin
Canada’s wildfires released a record amount of carbon in May, showing just how dangerous fires can be even before the summer fire season begins.
Emissions in the same month reached 54.8 million tonnes, more than double the amount of carbon emitted by wildfires in May since estimates began in 2003, according to the Copernicus Air Monitoring Service. In the boreal forest of western Canada, provincial records were set in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan, surpassing previous records.
