Massive Amounts of Carbon Dioxide



Interested in nature, Valerie Varnuska of Westbury, NY, spends some of her time exploring outdoors. Given her interest, she enjoys hiking and protecting the environment around her. To this end, Valerie Varnuska stays abreast of news relating to nature topics.

In September 2021, "Nature," a weekly international journal promoting science and technology, released a new analysis of the carbon dioxide emissions from the bush fires in southeastern Australia. These bushfires burned through late 2019 to early 2020 and covered over 74,000 square kilometers of eucalyptus forests in the area. In total, the fires burned an area larger than Sri Lanka.

Global databases and satellite data results show estimates that the fires had released about 275 million tons of carbon dioxide. However, a new analysis states this amount was actually 715 million tons, which is over double the estimated amount and more than 80 times the average amount released by fires in southeast Australia.

Despite the massive amount of carbon dioxide released into the area, another study revealed the large phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean absorbed much of the carbon dioxide plume. In fact, the bloom was responsible for consuming around 95 percent of the carbon emissions from the fires.

 

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