California’s unprecedented wildfires, driven by man-made climate change, are pumping the atmosphere with tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide that will only drive global temperatures higher.
Two scientists estimate separately for The Energy 202 that the fires in California this year through mid-September burned enough forest to put about 90 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, into the air. For perspective, that's some 30 million tons more than the total CO2 emissions from providing power to the entire state.
