Scientists say stopping fossil fuels is the only real fix for Canada's wildfire smoke
While firefighting resources help protect communities, experts warn that climate warming is driving more intense fires and making smoke events harder to prevent.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
Scientists studying Canada's wildfire crisis say that while firefighting resources are important, the deeper solution requires phasing out fossil fuels to slow the warming driving more intense fires and denser smoke into major cities.
Patrick James, an associate professor at the University of Toronto's forestry department, noted that modest temperature increases are producing multiplicative effects on fire frequency and intensity. "A lot of this is not entirely unexpected. [But] it's happening far sooner than a lot of people expected," he said.
Canada is warming at twice the global average rate, while the Arctic is warming at nearly four times the global rate. This accelerated warming dries out forests faster, making them more susceptible to fire. Unusually strong El Niño weather patterns and heat domes can also carry smoke hundreds or thousands of kilometres into cities and trap it longer.
Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist and dean at the University of Michigan, explained that global warming is drying vegetation much faster than in the past. "Because of global climate change and the warming of the planet, we're drying out vegetation much more than we did in the past, and that makes it more susceptible to fire."
Experts agree that more firefighting resources are necessary in the short term — but Canada is currently managing simultaneous fires across Nova Scotia, coastal British Columbia, and the far north, limiting how many resources can be deployed to any single region.
