Fire is important part of global climate change, report scientists

		IMAGE: These are smoke plumes from fires in Southeast Australia captured by satellite on January 11, 2007. Red outlines indicate active fires. Click here for more information.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Fire must be accounted for as an integral part of climate change, according to 22 authors of an article published in the April 24 issue of the journal Science. The authors determined that intentional deforestation fires alone contribute up to one-fifth of the human-caused increase in emissions of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that raises global temperature.