this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023

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Canada is experiencing its 'worst wildfire season of the 21st century': Blair (www.ctvnews.ca)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] Elrundir 32 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Its worst wildfire season of the 21st century so far.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's been 22 years since Canada's boreal forest has been a carbon sink (due to various gov'ts forest management failures and the impacts of climate change) and we are well past the point of being able to fix this. :/

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

20 years from now ..... 2023 will be seen as the best year for wild fires

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

In the region maybe for sure. A few years ago it was same for california/Oregon west coast.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

77 more years to go!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 years ago

Turns out climate change exists 🤷‍♀️

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

We need more funding and action to prevent this for sure. Climate change isn't going anywhere anytime soon so this will become more and more the norm.

I'm going camping this weekend and it's gonna suck not being able to have a fire.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

The frog sitting in boiling water analogy

The water's getting warm everyone .... don't worry, we'll be ok ... ribbit

[–] neighbourbehaviour 7 points 2 years ago

And this is how the climate change costs keep mounting.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

it’s gonna suck not being able to have a fire.

If we act now, you'll be able to have that fire in 20 years. But we're not doing it for our campfires. We're doing it because we know old people go hungry first and I want there to be enough food by the time I'm old so I still get some.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

I guess “worst wildfire season in 23 years” doesn’t have the same ring to it?

[+] [email protected] -8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

My dad said the quebec fire was started by someone tweeting to collect insurance on burning a a car or piece of farm equipment and the blaze got out of control, you heard anything like that?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

There's not just a single fire. There were over 130 in Quebec alone as of two days ago, most of which were started by lightning strikes.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

I think the problem is the undergrowth, Canada is very sparsely populated so it’s not like they’re really clearing out the forest so to say, that way, when lightning does strike has plenty of kindling to keep the fires is going

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The bigger problem is the hotter and dryer conditions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

I did hear about drought conditions up there

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, that's definitely a part of it. We've neglected to do controlled spreads of fire to limit these wildfires from being as devastating to the local ecosystems as they are. We're also just getting off a particularly dry spring for the provinces, so that kindling's ready to burn. This of course is accelerated and worsened by climate change. CBC has a whole article about the changing of our wildfires as its impacted by climate change. It's a good read and I'd encourage you to check it out.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Good article, i think controlled burns are the answer, the question is, will the government actually do it or will they just sit on their hands and collect their pay checks per usual

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Historically many indigenous people did this in the form of cultural burns. We wouldn't even have this problem if we hadn't outlawed it and committed a cultural genocide against their teachings. The myopia of our society is frustrating and continues to cause problems for us year after year. ^^;

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

These things do matter, but also, our weather patterns are dramatically changing. With record heat waves and dry spells coming in constantly, we'd still have this problem whether we'd lost the knowledge of forest stewardship or not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ya, it's a symptom of the intersection of several issues. We see the wildfires and just focus on "fix the wildfires and then forget about it", but the fact is that things will continue to get worse, even if we started on making things better right now.

But the longer we wait, the worse it'll get, and the faster we'll get there

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Agreed. And while I suspect this place is better than reddit for it, I still won't openly say what I believe the solution is as it's not a wise thing to post on public fora. Systemic changes are needed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

That's part of it but there is more to the story ...

-- a big change in logging activities, where previous practice was using brush piles (from delimbing trees) that were burned in winter was stopped (to save money), and instead a "where it drops, it stays" practice began, leaving massive amounts of dry fuel for fires to feed on (right around 2000-02 it changed)

-- a failure of gov't regulation to match tree planting numbers to equal the number of trees harvested

-- global warming that raised winter temperatures, which allowed pests to survive in larger numbers than ever before and decimated wide swaths of pine/spruce (BC is a prime example)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

My dad said the quebec fire was started by someone tweeting to collect insurance on burning a a car or piece of farm equipment and the blaze got out of control, you heard anything like that?

Only from climate change denying conspiracy nutbags.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

After reading your comment i was intrigued and found this on the subject, basically woman in Alberta charged with 32 counts of arson after wildfire investigation. I will link story below https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6053436

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Misinformation

That story has been featured in a lot of sources to back claims like yours.

Press Progress did a feature on it recently.

https://pressprogress.ca/far-right-website-true-north-is-spreading-deceptive-information-about-canadian-wildfires/

Didn't you notice the date of the article you're citing?

It's from 2021 ..... two years ago and has nothing to do with the current forest fire season

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

honestly didn’t notice, thanks for making me aware of that, i kind did a quick search and found that

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

That's the nature of modern day information now .... we're on our own and we have to be weary of anything and everything we read and watch because it's all being manipulated

My general rule of thumb is ... if what you find instantly makes you feel hate, anger, anxiety or fear ... especially towards a person or a people ... then chances are it has already done its work ... because someone is channeling your hate, anxiety, anger and fear to get you think and act in ways that will hurt others

Always second guess everything you read and watch ... never take it for face value without researching it first

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes it happens occasionally, but it's very very rare.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

I agree, I think most reasonable people are not out there starting fires on purpose

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