Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
As the Thomas Fire burns for the 14th day, more and more harmful emissions are being released into the atmosphere and are undoing the efforts of state and industry regulators to protect the environment.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Julie Cart has been writing about fire emissions for Cal Matters. Speaking with Take Two's Meghan McCarty Carino, she laid out both the long- and short-term effects of wildfire emissions.
"When trees burn, they emit carbon which is heavily regulated by the state, but fires don't follow the rules. There are short-term emissions, and then, as the trees decompose over time, some scientists would say 85 percent of the emissions occur after the fires. And that's hugely damaging to the state's efforts to reduce carbon."
Cart also spoke about the different types of pollutants emitted from scorched trees, and the debilitating effects of their emissions on the state's environmental goals.