What portion of CO2 Emissions are from forest fires versus burning fossil fuels or mammal breathing?

Answer 1

Very interesting question. Natural forest fires actually contribute very little CO2 compared to the burning of fossil fuels, but man made forest fires (usually done on purpose to clear forested land for farming/grazing) are a huge contributor to global CO2 emissions. The practice of buring wooded areas on purpose is responsible for about 30% of total yearly carbon emissions. These practices are a huge problem, and in my opinion more responsible farming/ranching would make just as big a difference (if not a bigger difference) than reducing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

As for carbon emissions from mammal breathing --- totally irrelevant to global warming. A more interesting statistic would be the amount of methane (a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2) given off from animal waste - especially from cattle/humans. Unfortunately I do not know these numbers.

EDIT:
Okay, I'm the only person to answer that actually gave them the portion of emissions that comes from buring forests - and I'm the one that gets a thumbs down? Absurd.

Answer 2

That is a good question. I would say because forest fires are periodic and trees clean the air when trees burn that would increase co2. But fossil fuels are being burned all the time and breathing occurs all the time too. So we must plant millions of trees to offset this.

Answer 3

Burning plant matter is not a huge problem in global warming. Fossil fuels are different.

The reason is that there is a natural carbon cycle. Carbon is taken up by things such as plants, and released when the plants decay or burn. That natural process works well.

But fossil fuels go outside the cycle. The carbon that was incorporated into the fossil fuels millions of years ago was long ago replaced in the natural carbon cycle. Digging it up now and burning it releases excess carbon dioxide which is wrecking the natural balance.

If we are to reduce global warming we need to focus on the really important things. That is, burning fossil fuels in power plants, cars, and trucks. It's all too easy to get diverted by the unimportant stuff.

Answer 4

Some believe that methane is much worse than CO2. Of course plants have blown a big hole in the CO2 emissions. I would like to know what technique u used to measure the methane. Methane is so light it will drift very high but I have never Sean indication that a large pool of methane exist . It looks like some very bad guessing again.