Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ignores responsibility for the ferocious wildfires wreaking havoc in the northeast, blaming them entirely on climate change and ignoring any suggestion that poor forest management may have contributed.
Biden sent 600 American firefighters to Canada yesterday to help fight the fires that have been raging for six weeks north of the border.
Those fires deepened yesterday when a blanket of choking smoke blew south, giving New York the most unhealthy air of anywhere on earth and sparking chaos in many other states.
Outdoor events have been canceled, all New Yorkers have been asked to stay indoors (or wear masks outside), and flights to LaGuardia Airport have been grounded . They were grounded again today, setting off a ripple effect of cancellations and delays that will wreak havoc at airports across the US and beyond.
There is growing outrage at the suggestion that climate change alone is responsible for the disaster, as Canadians have for years been calling for an increase in controlled burning to prevent such out-of-control blazes.
Many are now asking whether Trudeau and his government haven’t done more — and whether an obsession with green policies and protecting forestry is to blame for the insufficient response.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke yesterday at a diplomatic event in Ottawa. He ignored blame for the wildfires, blaming them entirely on climate change, while appealing for help from the United States
Hundreds of American firefighters are now in Canada battling the blaze that is suffocating American cities. Trudeau, thanking President Biden, blamed the catastrophic fires on climate change – ignoring any criticism of his government’s handling of forest management
Prescribed or “prescribed” burns are a critical component of forest management that have been proven to offset deadly and out of control fires.
The goal is to clear the powder keg-like understory forest of saplings, dry shrubs and grass in a controlled environment.
While the United States conducts more than 100,000 prescribed burns each year, Canada plans only 23 this year.
Trudeau, ignoring this, blamed the fires on climate change and climate change alone.
“We are seeing these fires more and more because of climate change. These fires affect daily routines, lives and livelihoods, and air quality.
“We will continue to work – here at home and with partners around the world – to fight climate change and address its impacts,” he said on Twitter.
After the devastating wildfires of 2017 in Canada, numerous scientific reports highlighted the need for better forest management and prescribed burns.
They detailed how climate change would make fires more likely, creating the need for a tougher government response and smarter forest management.
New York City yesterday had the worst air quality in the world following the fires, which many believe could have been prevented or at least reduced with better forest management.
Smoke billows upward from a planned ignition by firefighters tackling the Donnie Creek Complex wildfire south of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada June 3, 2023. Canada does not predicted 23 prescribed fires this year – the US had more than 150,000 in 2019
According to the Canadian government website, 23 controlled fires were planned for this year, with many expected later in the year.
By comparison, 151,542 were carried out in the United States in 2019, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
In 2021, Indigenous groups and forestry experts in British Columbia were still calling for more to be done.
“It’s as easy as lighting a match. But the way the province runs things, they want heavy equipment on site. They want big pipes, they want a lot of equipment and high-priced personnel,” said former Yuneŝit’in Prime Minister Russell Myers Ross. Radio Canada in a 2021 interview.
In the aftermath of the apocalyptic Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020, many environmental activists have been criticized for lobbying against prescribed burning which some say could have reduced the problem.
An acute example is the town of Nowa Nowa in Australia, where hazard reduction burns have had to be abandoned due to protests over wildlife damage despite authorities insisting it is of a necessary tool to limit bush fires.
In September 2019, in the town of Nowa Nowa in Australia, hazard reduction burns had to be abandoned due to protests over wildlife damage (pictured), despite authorities insisting that it is a necessary tool to limit bush fires.
Protesters (pictured) in the small Victorian town of Nowa Nowa saw a planned hazard reduction burn drop from 370ha to nine hectares last September Two months later the town had to be evacuated when the East Gippsland Mega Fire closed in
Pictured are the East Gippsland fires shortly after they erupted on December 31, 2019, burning 1 million hectares and destroying hundreds of homes
Just two months later, the town’s 200 residents are set to be urgently evacuated as the East Gippsland bushfire – which has killed four people, destroyed 340 homes and burned 1 million hectares – raged.
Canada has not yet responded on the number of prescribed burns conducted this year ahead of fire season, or the recommended number.
But the warnings have been in place for years.
In 2016, Mark Heathcott, who led Parks Canada’s burns division for years, said Canada was “far behind its American counterparts” when it comes to controlled fires.
“A lot of rhetoric is thrown at him, but very few agencies do.
“People don’t understand the benefits of fire,” he said in an interview with MacLeans.
