"Alaska’s on Fire and It May Make Climate Change Even Worse"

The real problem from the hundreds of wildfires in Alaska and Canada is that they could speed up melting of the permafrost -- releasing a reservoir of carbon and speeding up climate change.

"This weekend, smoke smothered the high-rises of downtown Vancouver. Sunsets as far south as Ohio took on brilliant hues of red and orange. And humanity reached another potential milestone in climate change—all thanks to hundreds of wildfires burning in Alaska and Canada.

The problem isn’t just scorched landscape—though that’s bad enough, to the tune of 3 million acres and 600 fires in Alaska and over 4,000 wildfires in Canada. This year has been exceptionally hot and dry—just ask a Californian—but even so this year’s blazes haven’t yet surpassed the toll of the even fierier 2004. As Sam Harrel, spokesperson for the Alaska Fire Service, puts it in understated terms, “We are on a track for a lot of acres this year.” But the real problem is that the fires could accelerate the melting of permafrost, a layer of ground that’s never supposed to get above freezing. And permafrost is one of Earth’s great storehouses of carbon. Release it, and you speed up climate change."
 
Sarah Zhang reports for Wired July 8, 2015.