This wildfire season so far in California has been extraordinary. …Wildfires can have a global climate impact as well, because burning vegetation releases planet-warming carbon dioxide. And from June through August, California fires emitted twice as much CO2 as during the same period last year, and far more than any other summer in nearly two decades. That’s the conclusion of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, a European Union-financed agency, which estimates emissions based on satellite measurements available since 2003. Over the three months, it said, California fires released more than 75 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s a small amount compared with annual worldwide CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels… And most of the CO2 emitted by wildfires may, over time, be offset as vegetation recolonizing burned areas uses CO2 to grow. Still, any additional amount of CO2 in the atmosphere contributes to warming.