Biomass burning, such as forest fires, has always been a natural process that contributes gases such as carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere. Anthropogenic biomass burning (such as occurs during deforestation to make way for farmland) is an additional source of greenhouse gases that is not totally compensated for by removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Consequently, greenhouse gases are increasing, and have been implicated in such processes as rapid glacier retreat in the Canadian Coast Mountains (pictured here).