Hot claims
wildfires that scorched parts of Indonesian forests in 1997 spewed as much carbon into the atmosphere as the planet's biosphere absorbs in a year. This claim has been made by researchers of uk-based University of Leicester.
According to them, the forest fires released about 2.6 billion metric tonnes of carbon, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide (co2). As a result, there was an extremely sharp increase in global warming during 1998.
Using satellite images of a 2.5 million hectare study area in Central Kalimantan, Borneo; from before and after the 1997 fires; the researchers calculated that about 32 per cent, or almost 800,000 hectares, of the area was burned. Peatlands accounted for 91.5 per cent of the burned area, or about 730,000 hectares. "Using ground measurements of the burnt depth of peat, we estimate that 0.19-0.23 gigatonnes (gt) of carbon was released into the atmosphere through peat combustion, with a further 0.05 gt released from burning of overlying vegetation,' said the researchers.
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