Carbon emissions from Canadian wildfires don't compare to those of human race | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Wildfires released more carbon in three days than all humanity in the last 100 years

A June 7 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) features a picture of the Statute of Liberty surrounded by smog.

"The amount of carbon that wildfires have put into the atmosphere in the last three days is more carbon than what the entire, post-industrial, human race has put out in the last 100 years," reads the text within the post.

The caption says, "You can TRY all that electric car, solar power, zero emissions BS all you want but the facts remain: When Mother Nature is done with us, WE’LL KNOW IT!"

The post garnered more than 6,000 likes in less than two weeks. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Facebook and Instagram.

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Our rating: False

Experts say the carbon emissions from wildfires are far lower than what the human race has produced over the last century.

Carbon emissions from human race surpass those of wildfires

Hundreds of wildfires have spread across Canada since early May, blanketing much of Canada and parts of the U.S. in smoke. As a result, the air quality in multiple cities, such as Syracuse, New York, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, reached hazardous levels.

But the carbon emissions from these wildfires don't compare to those of the entire human race, according to Dr. Werner Kurz, a senior research scientist at the Canadian Forest Service. Even the worst fire season on record in Canada produced less carbon than the rest of the nation in that year alone.

“This is a completely absurd statement that is not based on any facts," Kurz said in an email. "The worst fire season in Canada – in 2021 – is estimated to have caused direct emissions of 290 million tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent. This is about 43% of the emissions from all other sectors in Canada – only – in 2021."

Kurz said the recent fires burned a much smaller area than those in 2021. Though they've caused significant emissions, those emissions pale in comparison to the annual emissions of all global human activity – let alone the emissions over the past 100 years.

Kurz said CO2 emissions from global fossil fuel burning averaged about 35 billion tons annually over the last decade, or 100 times the emissions from the Canadian wildfires this year.

Fact check: Viral helicopter video shows planned ignition to mitigate wildfire in Canada

Paul Wennberg, director of Caltech's Linde Center for Global Environmental Science and co-creator of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network, also told USA TODAY the claim is false.

"This isn't close to being true," Wennberg said. "Since we started burning fossil fuels, atmospheric CO2 has increased from ~280 ppm (parts per million) to 420 ppm. If the claim about Canadian fires were true, atmospheric CO2 would have jumped to more than 500 ppm over the past few days. It has not."

Wenning directed USA TODAY to a graph published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration based on data collected by the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. It shows that CO2 atmospheric concentration has steadily increased since 1958. That data shows no significant jump since the 2023 Canadian wildfires began or in the three-day period preceding the Instagram post's claim.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The claim has also been debunked by PolitiFact.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Post exaggerates carbon emissions from Canadian wildfires | Fact check