Is Someone Going to Put Out the Fires in Canada?
Excuse me if my words are not as clear as they should be. After round two of smokey conditions in Cleveland caused by the wildfires in Canada, I’m feeling a bit dizzy. Yesterday, the air smelled like something was ablaze down the street; some people said it smelled more like burning plastic than a forest fire. Today the burning odor has dissipated but a haze lingers.
This has been happening for days in Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., New York City and elsewhere. One can only imagine what it’s like in Canada.
Based on this map created by NASA, it looks like the lower half of Canada is experiencing significant wildfires at the same time. It’s strange.
According to the Toronto Sun, more than 430 wildfires are currently burning in Canada; of those, more than 200 are out of control. About 13,000 people had at one point been evacuated from their homes in Quebec. Another 14,000 people had to flee their homes due to fires in parts of Alberta. Around Edmonton, residents had to evacuate twice in June due to out-of-control fires.
What is going on?
Forest fires occur every year in Canada. Some years, the fires are more intense. The Canadian National Fire Database shows that in 1989, there were about 12,000 fires throughout Canada, which resulted in 7.8 million hectares of land being burned. Contrast that with 2020, which saw fewer than 1,000 fires and less than half a million hectares burned.
Experts say that this year’s fires will likely surpass the high numbers in 1989. Dry, hot weather and lightning are often attributed to Canadian wildfires. Some arrests for arson have been made, but it remains unclear if those incidents led to massive forest fires.
How does the smoke travel so far?
Several Canadian cities have been experiencing poor air quality, but more attention has been given to the smoke that made its way to the northern part of the United States. The first round of smokey air hit cities like Chicago, Cleveland and New York earlier in June. After a brief clearing, the skies turned smoggy again a few days ago, forcing many cities to issue poor air quality alerts. More than 120 million people in the United States have been affected.
According to TIME magazine, “The smoke’s trajectory follows the wind, which is currently traveling north to south, and as a result, bringing smoke from fires in Canada, towards the U.S.” The smoke gets caught up in the wind, so instead of a nice breeze off the Great Lakes you get a dense, unhealthy haze.
Now the smoke has traversed the Atlantic and settled on parts of Europe, according to NASA.
Is climate change to blame?
The magnitude of fires in Canada fluctuates year to year, as this chart from the Canadian National Fire Database shows.
As you can see, since 1980, most wildfire seasons are relatively mild. An uptick occurred between 2010 and 2017, but 2020 was extremely low, and the following year was much higher. This could indicate that the severity of Canadian wildfires depends on several factors, including temperature, dryness and lightning.
Human carelessness is also a big factor in wildfires. In the United States, about 85% of wildfires are caused by humans leaving campfires unattended, dropping lit cigarettes into wooded areas or experiencing equipment malfunctions that spark fires. Sadly, some of the fires are a result of arson.
The Toronto Sun ran an article on June 7 that got little attention. Arson was suspected for at least one of the fires that burned out of control in Quebec. According to the article: “Certainly, foul play is not suspected in all of Quebec’s fires. But the ones which began in the small village of Chapais — in the northeast section of the province — are being probed.”
The magnitude of the fires in Canada fueled the climate change debate. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer tweeted, “These Canadian wildfires are truly unprecedented, and climate change continues to make these disasters worse.”
The Guardian has been spreading gloom and doom for weeks, casting as wide a net as the fires themselves. Consider these headlines, which put all of the blame on climate change:
‘Nowhere is safe now’: wildfire smoke brings climate crisis home to Americans
Canada’s wildfires are part of our new climate reality, experts and officials say
Canada is on fire, and big oil is the arsonist
As the article in the Toronto Sun notes, “At this point, it’s too early to say the early fires in Quebec were started on purpose or as a result of climate change.” The Guardian would obviously disagree.
Is Canada able to put out the fires?
One thing that the Guardian is not mentioning: Canada is doing a terrible job of preventing fires from spreading in the first place. The New York Times spells it out succinctly in this headline: Canada’s Ability to Prevent Forest Fires Lags Behind the Need.
The first paragraph cuts to the chase:
Canada’s capacity to prevent wildfires has been shrinking for decades because of budget cuts, a loss of some of the country’s forest service staff, and onerous rules for fire prevention, turning some of its forests into a tinderbox.
Prescribed burns, also known as controlled burns, would go a long way to mitigating the problem. Dead organic material on the forest floor can easily spark fires if the conditions are right. A prescribed burn in the spring carefully scorches that material and restores health to the ecosystem.
Canada does not do many prescribed burns. According to the Times, Canadian provinces “invest in small, community-based programs that protect villages and towns rather than mitigating the risk of fire throughout forests, increasing the threat of out-of-control wildfires.”
What’s more, many budgets for fire prevention have been slashed. The Times notes, “British Columbia spent 801 million Canadian dollars (about $601 million) on fighting forest fires during the unusually hot year 2021 wildfire season. But the province’s current wildfire prevention budget is just 32 million dollars a year.” One has to wonder why, especially with concerns about the earth’s temperature rising, Canada would cut funding so severely.
The amount of fires currently happening at one time makes it difficult for Canadian firefighters to get the blazes under control. Firefighters from Australia, Chile, Costa Rica, France, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States have joined in to help. That still may not be enough to quickly stop the fires and clear the air in Canada, the United States and now a sliver of Europe.
In conclusion
It’s less smokey in Cleveland today. That may change if the fires in Canada can’t be controlled soon. A host of factors have led to this “unprecedented” situation. Right now, the most important detail is quieting the fires and making sure Canadians are safe. (To date, no fire-related deaths have been reported.) After that, it should be time to look at what Canada can do moving forward to prevent this from happening again.
It is hard to understand why the nearly annual flames in Canada and California have not been effectively addressed especially as their governments claim to be environmentalists concerned with "climate change" and pollution.