Yearly CO2 emissions from forest fires are worldwide starting to account for 20% of total yearly CO2 emissions. Yes, this is huge of course, and do we count that?

No, we do not. I read in the Washington Post the following reasoning: « The Australian bushfire have released enough greenhouse gases (409 x 106 ton CO2-e) to effectively double that country’s annual emissions (421 x 106 ton) from burning fossil fuels...…. Fire related emissions are not included in annual estimates of a country’s emissions, because such polluants tend to be reabsorbed over time ».

This reasoning is absurdly short-sighted and fooling. In fact there is an event that destroys your CO2 absorption capacity for 30 years, plus there is an huge CO2 emission, and you conclude nothing happens. This is complete nonsense. (See also this worldwide recent alarm on tree mortality and forest recovery after fires).

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