No, LA wildfires haven't emitted more CO2 than all US cars | Fact check
The claim: Los Angeles wildfires produced more CO2 in two days than American cars have in decades
A Jan. 11 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a photo of fire burning through a neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles in early January.
"Newsom's California fires have emitted more CO2 in two days than every car in America has in decades!" reads text under the image.
The post was shared more than 100 times in three weeks.
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Our rating: False
Wildfires are a significant source of CO2 emissions, but two days of January wildfires in Southern California did not produce anywhere near as much CO2 as U.S. cars have emitted over decades. Total fire emissions through late January were still about 1% of annual U.S. car emissions, the latest data shows.
Decades of car CO2 emissions trump LA wildfires
Wildfires that broke out in Southern California in early January have killed at least 29 people and destroyed thousands of structures.
Based on NASA satellite data, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service estimates that, as of Jan. 26, California wildfires had emitted about 4.4 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025, according to Mark Parrington, a researcher at the organization. By Jan. 26, the Southern California fires had been burning for weeks, but they still produced significantly less CO2 than U.S. cars produce in one year.
From 2018-2022, U.S. cars produced roughly 340-400 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2005, passenger cars emitted around 560 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent.
Those annual emissions from cars are much greater than even annual emissions from California wildfires.
For instance, the California Air Resources Board estimated that total California CO2 emissions from wildfires in 2022 were around 9 megatonnes. The highest estimate in the last 20 years was around 106 megatonnes in 2020.
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While the post dramatically overstates the amount of CO2 released by two days of the Southern California fires, global wildfires do generate significant CO2 emissions. These emissions help drive climate change, which, in turn, exacerbates wildfire by creating hotter and drier conditions.
Paste BN reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources
- Mark Parrington, Jan. 27, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Steven Davis, Jan. 27, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Adam Rose, Jan. 27, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Copernicus, Jan.17, Los Angeles wildfires and air quality impact
- Copernicus, Dec. 5, 2024, CAMS Global wildfires review 2024: a harsh year for the Americas
- Copernicus, Dec. 13, 2022, CAMS: monitoring extreme wildfire emissions in 2022
- Nature, August 28, 2024, Carbon emissions from the 2023 Canadian wildfires
- World Resources Institute, Aug. 13, 2024, The Latest Data Confirms: Forest Fires Are Getting Worse
- NOAA, July 24, 2023, Wildfire climate connection
- California Air Resources Board, accessed Jan. 29, Wildfire Emissions Estimates for 2023
- Environmental Protection Agency, May 2024, Fast Facts: U.S. Transportation Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 1990-2022
- CALFIRE, accessed Jan. 30, Current Emergency Incidents
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