SUN CITY, South Africa, May 11 (UPI) -- A report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released at a conference in South African advised policymakers to monitor wildfires more effectively.
The report from the forestry organization said leaders need to do a better job of monitoring the amount of carbon gas emitted from wildfires to determine any potential impact on the environment.
"Mega-fires are mainly caused by humans and are likely exacerbated by climate change, but now we suspect they may also in themselves represent a vicious circle that is speeding up global warming," Pieter van Lierop, a forestry officer with the FAO, said in a statement Tuesday.
FAO researchers said the potential problems are increased with the growing number of hotter and drier fire seasons.
A February blaze in Australia killed 173 people. Mass fires in Russia last year killed 62 people and wiped out more than 2 million hectares of land, causing concerns about the global supply of staple food crops such as grain.
