In the thick forests of Patagonia, some trees are taller than others. The biggest has Grow as tall as a 20-story building and almost as thick as a small school bus in length, having survived everything nature has thrown at them over thousands of years. But now, the world may have to watch them burn.

In early January, severe fires ERUPTS in the Patagonia region of Argentina, rent through the scrubland and forest of Chubut Province. In the middle of the month, there are new fires burning in southern Chile. As crews struggled to contain the fires, they spread across northern Patagonia and the Andean foothills of central-southern Chile—killing 23 people, forcing thousands to evacuate, and scorching thick indigenous forests and national parks.

While the situation has improved somewhat, forest fires are still raging active burning in both countries. A report PUBLISHED today by the World Weather Attribution-a non-profit that calculates how climate change influences the intensity and probability of a natural disaster-found that extreme heat, months of drought, and fierce winds driven by human activity are fueling this wildfire crisis.

At the same time, these fires are destroying our best line of defense against climate change: old-growth forests. In Argentine Patagonia, fires are WRECKAGE large areas of Los Alerces National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its ancient Alerce trees—some of the oldest living trees on Earth.

A climate feedback loop

The park is home to the longest-lived population of Alerce trees in the world, according to UNESCO World Heritage Center. The oldest, largest specimen stands nearly 200 feet (60 meters) tall and is estimated to be 2,600 years old. It can live another thousand years if it survives these fires—the Alerce is the second longest-lived tree species in the world.

Over the course of their long lives, these trees take in large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their biomass—their trunks, branches, roots, and leaves. Research has SHOW with the largest 1% of trees storing almost half of the above-ground biomass carbon of the entire forest. Keeping carbon out of the atmosphere directly reduces the greenhouse effect, which prevents global temperature rise.

But when these giant trees burn, it’s like a carbon bomb. Their stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere, fueling global warming and creating hotter, drier conditions that make wildfires more likely and severe—as seen in the current crisis in Chile and Argentina. More forests were burned, and the shekel start again.

All forest fires release carbon dioxide, but burning old, large trees releases more than burning young forests. At the same time, the destruction of vast ancient forests—such as Los Alerces National Park—reduces the capacity to store terrestrial carbon.

A devastating blow to conservation efforts

As Los Alerces burns, carbon emissions aren’t the only cause for concern. The World Weather Attribution report says the destruction of critical habitat puts vulnerable species at risk, including the South Andean deer, the pudú (the world’s smallest deer species), and the Magellanic woodpecker.

Protecting this forest is also important for the conservation of the Alerce tree, itself a threatened species.

The report concludes that wildfire poses a growing threat to this world heritage and the flora and fauna it protects. Across the Chilean and Argentine regions affected by the current wildfire crisis, all climate models project a continued shift to more severe fire season conditions with a reduction in seasonal rainfall.

“This strong agreement between the models gives us high confidence that the changes already observed are driven by climate change,” the report says.

It is too soon to say how much damage the forest of Los Alerces will cause from these fires, but if the global temperature continues unabated, man will be the force that will finally kill the giants of the park for millennia.