Wildfires in boreal forests released a record amount of CO2 in 2021, new research says. In related news: two NGOs deliver conservation in the Northwest Territories; the Kaska Nation in BC plants trees for climate action; and a global summit on who should pay to save the world’s forests.
In Forest Product news: BC developer Adera is halfway to 1000 mass timber homes; UK Wood For Good closes its doors; the UK Green Building Council on wood substitution; IKEA seeks forest supply chain clarity; and avoiding palm oil is harder than you think. In Business news: Home Depot and Lowe’s muddy outlook; Australia & New Zealand wood export woes; and more on Canfor’s Q4 and Tolko’s operations.
Finally, on World Wildlife Day a squirrel hides its wares in a Subaru Forester.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
DELFT, The Netherlands — Global home furnishings retailer Ikea has joined Canopy in an effort to keep ancient and endangered forests out of the viscose supply for home textiles and to work toward supply chain transformation. By joining the CanopyStyle initiative, Ikea is continuing its commitment to the world’s forests and procuring viscose for home textiles only from producers that have achieved the highest ranking in Canopy’s Hot Button Report. Ikea is the first major retailer focused on the home textile and furnishing space to join CanopyStyle. …Lena Bischoff, material and innovation area manager, Inter Ikea Group… “The home textiles sector needs to step-up and ensure that the forest-derived textiles, like viscose and lyocell, only come from responsibly managed forests, and make a shift towards lower-impact alternatives.” The world’s ancient and endangered forests are not required to make fabrics like viscose and rayon for fashion and home fabrics.
LOWER POST, BC
WASHINGTON — In 2021, wildfires pillaged the world’s carbon-rich snow forests. That year, burning boreal forests released 1.76 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, researchers reported March 2 in a news conference at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That’s a new record for the region, which stores about one-third of the world’s land-based carbon. “It’s also roughly double the emissions in that year from aviation,” said earth system scientist Steven Davis of the University of California, Irvine. The trend, if it continues, threatens to make fighting climate change even more difficult. …Climate change is causing the taiga to warm about twice as fast as the global average. And wildfires are growing more widespread in the region, releasing more of the trapped carbon, which in turn can worsen climate change. …There’s no data yet to show if 2022 saw a similar surge in emissions.
The world’s most northerly forests could be a “time bomb” of planet-warming pollution as expanding wildfires have released record high levels of planet-heating pollution into the atmosphere, according to a new study. Using new satellite data analysis techniques, researchers found that, since 2000, summer wildfires have expanded in boreal forests, which wrap around the northernmost parts of the Earth. Boreal forest fires usually make up 10% of global wildfire-related carbon pollution. But in 2021, their contribution soared to 23%, according to the study, as extreme drought and heatwaves in Siberia and Canada helped drive intense fires. …These forests, which cover huge swaths of Canada, Russia and Alaska, are the world’s largest land biome. They are also carbon dense, releasing 10 to 20 times more planet-heating carbon pollution for each unit of area burned by wildfires than other ecosystems. …Russia’s Siberian region burned nearly 45 million acres of Russian forest in 2021.
