北極圏のＣＯ２排出量が過去最多に　ロシアで続く森林火災が影響

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】森林火災が続く北極圏で、今年に入って排出された二酸化炭素（CO2）の量がすでに過去最多だった昨年の総排出量を上回り、大気汚染の深刻化が進んでいることが、欧州連合（EU）の地球観測プログラム「コペルニクス」の報告で明らかになった。（写真は資料写真）
　北緯６６度以北の北極圏で制御不能となっている森林火災から２０２０年１月以降に排出されたＣＯ２量は、人工衛星が収集したデータによれば、すでに２億５０００万トンに上る。これは、２０１９年の年間総排出量の１．３倍以上に相当する。
　コペルニクス大気モニタリングサービス（ＣＡＭＳ）と欧州中期気象予報センター（ＥＣＭＷＦ）の共同報告によると、北極圏の森林火災のほぼ全てがロシアで発生している。
　一部が北極圏に含まれるロシア極東連邦管区では、今年６～８月のＣＯ２排出量が５億トンを超え、こちらも過去最多を更新した。
　ＣＡＭＳのマーク・パリントン上席研究員は、「北極圏の火災は６月中旬から活発化しており、規模と激しさの点で、２０１９年の記録をすでに上回っている」と説明した。一連の森林火災の原因は衛星画像からは分からないが、初夏に発生した火災の多くは、冬の間くすぶっていた昨年の火災の残り火が再燃した「ゾンビ火災」だと考えられるという。
　シベリアでは今年１月以降、広範囲で異常な高気温が続き、土壌の湿度も低下している。地球温暖化によるとみられるこうした気象条件が、森林火災の延焼拡大につながっている。
　コペルニクス気候変動サービス（Ｃ３Ｓ）の責任者カルロ・ブオンテンポ氏は先月、シベリアや北極圏では前年比で気温が大きく変動する傾向があるとはいえ、今年の暖かさは異常だと指摘。「心配なのは、北極の温暖化が世界のどの地域よりも速く進んでいることだ」と述べていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/09/10-15:08）

This year's Arctic Circle wildfires, still ablaze, have already surpassed the record set in 2019 for CO2 emissions, adding to the carbon pollution humanity needs to curtail, the European Union's Earth observation programme said Thursday.
Uncontrolled forest fires across one of the planet's coldest regions has sent a quarter of a billion tonnes of CO2 spiralling into the atmosphere since January this year, topping by more than a third the total for 2019, according to satellite data.
The Arctic Circle includes latitudes upwards of 66 degrees North.
Almost all of the fires are in Russia, the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts jointly reported.
Russia's Eastern Federal District, which includes parts of the Arctic Circle, emitted more than half-a-billion tonnes of CO2 from June to August 2020, also the highest amount to date.
The Arctic fires burning since mid-June with high activity have already beaten 2019's record in terms of scale and intensity, said CAMS senior scientist Mark Parrington.
While satellite images do not reveal how these fires start, many of the blazes early in the summer are thought to have been caused by zombie fires that smoulder through the winter and then reignite, he said.
Freakishly warm weather across large swathes of Siberia since January combined with low soil moisture -- likely a consequences of global warming -- have fuelled the flames.
- Arctic warming -
Siberia and the Arctic Circle are prone to large year-on-year temperature fluctuations, but the persistence of this year's warm spell is unusual, Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service noted last month.
What is worrisome is that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world, he said.
In both polar regions, average temperatures have risen more than two degrees Celsius since the mid-19th century, mostly in the last 50 years. That is twice the global average.
Worldwide, CO2 emissions from fires have averaged about seven billion tonnes a year since 2000, and were even higher in the 1990s, according to Copernicus.
But humanity's output of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels -- 37 billion tonnes last year -- has increased by nearly 50 percent over the same period.
Out-of-control wildfires in the western United States, meanwhile, have been fanned by high winds and heatwave conditions, according to CAMS, which tracks fires around the globe.
And the number of fires in Brazil's Amazon basin last month were at their second highest level in a decade, according to official figures released this week.