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https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-blames-canada-for-wildfire-smoke-but-global-warming-is-loading-the-wildfire-dice-288167>
"United States President Donald Trump has accused Canada of “wilful negligence”
over wildfires, blaming its forest management, threatening tariffs and floating
demands for compensation. His argument is absurd.
Smoke does not carry a passport. Wildfires are burning across several
countries, causing evacuations and devastating communities. In North America,
smoke from fires has spread over many parts of central Canada and the U.S.
Wildfires are currently scorching vast areas in Oregon and the Pacific
Northwest. France and Spain have evacuated hundreds of thousands of residents
as wildfires close in on Bordeaux, France, and grow around Madrid, Spain.
Despite Trump’s claims, Canada cannot log, rake or prescribe-burn its way out
of a planetary problem.
Wildfires require ignition, combustible fuel and weather that permits rapid
spread. Climate change does not usually strike the match — people and lightning
do that, with lightning responsible for most of the area burned in Canada. But
warming weather increasingly determines whether a spark dies or becomes a
catastrophe. Hotter air, earlier snowmelt and longer summers mean a drier
landscape and more severe fire seasons.
In 2004, colleagues and I demonstrated that human-caused climate change had
already left a detectable fingerprint on the area burned by Canadian forest
fires. A 2024 study found that human influence has made fire seasons like
Canada’s record 2023 season more than five times as likely across nearly every
Canadian ecozone.
Of course, forest management practices matter. Fire suppression, accumulated
fuels, vulnerable development and inadequate community protection raise risk in
some regions. But many of Canada’s largest fires burn in remote boreal
landscapes, and much of the boreal forest is not manageable."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
