Subarctic wildfires are spreading and smoldering underground globally

Wildfires are increasingly moving underground, burning carbon-rich soil layers and releasing massive amounts of emissions, Bloomberg reports. The fires have doubled in frequency over the past two decades, and are particularly severe in the Arctic. The fires in Siberia alone have consumed mns of acres of tundra.

The phenomenon is not limited to the Arctic: Wildfires that began as forest fires in Canada have moved underground, smoldering through the winter and resurfacing in the spring. This year, Canada experienced one of its most extreme fire-emission years in two decades. The carbon released from these fires contributes to a feedback loop, accelerating permafrost thawing and releasing even more greenhouse gases.

The impact is massive: Wildfires that consumed Canada’s boreal forest and peatland released more emissions than fossil fuels burning in almost every country in the world last year. Their emissions are also harder to measure since they have no visible flames and can’t be detected by satellites. Reducing wildfire emissions, particularly from carbon-intensive peat fires, necessitates significant changes in human behaviour in increasingly fire-prone regions including adopting better land management practices and enhancing fire-fighting resources.