Effective control of forest fires may prove crucial in the fight against global warming since blazes from Alaska to Indonesia spew out vast amounts of heat-trapping gases, Canadian foresters said on Thursday. "Forests are a wild card in the debate" about rising world temperatures, said Brian Stocks, a forest fire expert with the government-run Canadian Forest Service. Annual fire damage in countries from Russia to Canada varies hugely, and many of the most destructive blazes are lit by lightning in remote regions. But campers tipping over stoves or arsonists cause a rising number of preventable fires. Stocks told Reuters that more careful forest plantings, better surveillance to spot outbreaks of fires, quicker response by fire-fighters and education of the public could limit damage. Fires in Indonesia which raged for months in the late 1990s, creating clouds that dimmed the sun, released up to an estimated 2.6 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases or the equivalent of about 40 percent of world industrial emissions in a year. Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they burn or rot. Carbon dioxide is also emitted by burning fossil fuels in cars, power plants and factories, and is widely blamed for blanketing the planet and nudging up temperatures. --More 2328 Local Time 2028 GMT
