FOREST fires are raging across southern Spain and Portugal, and African locusts are invading French fields. As this summer’s European drought continues, two climate research groups have warned that it will unleash large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, giving further impetus to global warming.
Estimates from CarboEurope, a European Union research team based in Jena, Germany, suggest that during July and August 2003, around 500 million tonnes of carbon escaped from western Europe’s forests and fields as crops shrivelled, soils desiccated and trees burnt. The releases are equivalent to around twice the emissions from fossil-fuel burning in the…
