Here’s why science isn’t really for the “common sense” types:
2023 smashed the record for the hottest year, but it might have been even hotter. The entire northern hemisphere would have been nearly 1°C warmer on average during its summer without the cooling effect of smoke from massive wildfires in Canada, a climate model suggests. The smoke may also have led to the driest August in India on record.
“I think it’s really hard to comprehend how gigantic the fires were. It was insane,” says Iulian-Alin Rosu at the Technical University of Crete in Greece, who presented his team’s findings at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, Austria.
The emissions were around five or six times higher than those during any previously recorded wildfire season in Canada, estimates Rosu. The carbon dioxide from these fires is having an ongoing warming effect, but in 2023 this warming was outweighed by the cooling effect of smoke blocking sunlight. [“Massive wildfires in Canada helped keep the world cooler in 2023,” Michael Le Page, NewScientist (24 May 2025, paywall)]
There’s always something waiting around the corner to trip you up on your triumphal trot to the finish line.
