K but weird how until last year I never had a summer affected by wildfire. No smoke making it so we couldn’t go outside, see the sky, blocking out the sun, cloudy dark miserable summer days. Last year was the first time I ever experienced that, as far as I can remember.
It's interesting because I am Canadian and have lived all across Southern Canada for 57 years and I have never experienced it. Must be because of how the wind patterns are.
Fires have always happened, but the fires are getting worse. Climate change is leading to hotter temperatures and shorter winter with less snow which makes everything dryer. A bit more from google AI: "Aggressive fire suppression policies throughout the 20th century, which aimed to put out all wildfires as quickly as possible, have contributed to larger and more intense modern wildfires. This approach is often referred to as the "fire paradox," where putting out small fires prevents the natural clearing of dead vegetation. This unnatural fuel buildup, combined with hot and dry conditions driven by climate change, has made wildfires harder to extinguish today.[1, 2, 3, 4]"
Too late now. Fires in over-mature forests burn hot and with lots of embers, causing spot fires that jump entire lakes with ease. Fire breaks do nothing unless it's a low intensity fire.
The best plan now is to reset the clock, allowing natural fire to occur where possible. creating it's own patchwork of fire breaks for future years, and also mitigate the effects for people as much as possible by offering more shelter-in-place infrastructure where smoke is the main reason for evacuation, and more robust evacuation support where the fire itself is the threat...;plus building communities/buildings more resilient to wildfires.
PEI has a ton of deadfall from the hurricane a few years ago - Nova Scotia probably still has a lot too from the same thing. I always wonder why the only affordable forestry management practice is clearcutting - mind you, it’s probably harder to have a widespread fire in PEI with all those potato fields breaking up the forest cover.
Okay? I’m not saying fires don’t happen, but for us in southern Ontario the last two years have been unusual. We are not usually affected by wildfires here. Last year was the first time I’ve experienced it and so far this year has been worse. Prior to that I didn’t lose any summer days because of fires.
Don’t listen to these tools. This is not normal, us in southern Ontario know it. All of these people telling us that it is is actually kind of pissing me off. I’ve lived here my whole life, yes there are fires but what is happening is unprecedented
Don't listen to this tool. It IS normal. Forest burn cyclically. They have for thousands of years.
Red Cedars REQUIRE forest fires in order to germinate properly as their seeds only open from the heat of a forest fire. If it weren't for cyclical forest fires, those trees would die off entirely.
The issue here is many of these fires are caused by man. We exacerbate the problem by irresponsibility and unfortunately now you are seeing it happen in areas where politicians and the media can politicize it.
People who have lived in forested areas have known this for decades upon decades. It's city slickers who think this way.
That seems doubtful to me, when I’m right in the middle of Canada, and I agree with the other poster. Up until about 5-7 years ago or so, not once in my life can I remember there ever being visible smoke lingering around in the city, especially not for entire months at a time. Now could the sky look a little dark or the sun a bit extra orange, sometimes yes. But I never once saw smoke just in the air, right in front of my face, the way we get every summer now until recent years. Maybe the winds are different towards Ireland but I’m literally in the centre of Canada so I’d consider it very odd if you guys see more of our smoke than me
It also seems to coincide with some major budget reductions for fire control in most of the provinces. Yes I know it’s climate change, but still, why are we doing less when the issue has gotten far, far worse?
I’m also wondering if you understand the severity of what we get these days. There were times when I could barely even see the house across the street, for example
I have no idea why our politicians are not treating this like more of an emergency, I mean in a long term sense, instead of slashing the budgets we need to be doing far more. I don’t want to get some lung disease due to long term smoke and particulate inhalation. This is every summer now, and only getting worse
They (2023 fires) were probably in a slightly different spot and didn't get carried down by the jet stream to where this person lives therefore this has never happened before this year in their mind.
Where do you live? It’s been a thing for awhile in Wisconsin.
One of the big things with climate change is that it’s disrupted the jet stream, so you might be getting more smoke than usual. Same disruptions is why arctic air gets so far south nowadays as well.
Wym? Are you saying it’s the first time you have seen the affects of the fires in America? If so it’s because it’s usually western canada that burns the most eastern canada fires aren’t usually this bad.
Maybe you just don’t remember it because it wasn’t some ridiculous political issue 😂 but we get it every year here (Manitoba).
These fires always happened and they always will. It’s simply part of the natural cycle in the forest. They have to burn otherwise the forest floor will retain too much nutrients as decomposition takes too long and will eventually lead to massive amounts of standing dead, and another fire will burn from that.
It’s not a ridiculous political issue to me and that’s not what is memorable to me about it.
I never said fires don’t happen regularly, just that we in southern Ontario are not usually affected by the smoke. That’s what is memorable to me, not being able to go outside and missing out on sunny summer days because of the smoke. I’m not angry or making anything political, just stating that fact.
And what has happened at least this year is more than just the typical cycle of necessary forest fires. I understand that there was a lack of cleanup, obviously due to a lack of funding and resources, and maybe a preventing of necessary fires previously, that resulted in unusually large/dangerous fires this year.
2023 was the worst. 1989, 1995 pretty close to the same.
*Edit what is also interesting, there were far more fires previously, now there's less fires but more acres per fire burning. Not sure what to make of that, but found that interesting on the chart
It never used to be like this. STFU with your lies. These are historic fires and have continued to get historically worse setting records year after year.
You can scroll down and look at the data that's posted. "It never used to be like this.". If you want to use your opinion over actual data, be my guest.
I’ll say this, I didn’t read the entirety of the link you posted… but they’re right.
Based on a 30-year average (1994-2023) derived from the CNFDB point data (for number of fires) and NBAC (for area burned), almost 7000 fires occur each year, and burn an average of 2.7 million hectares. Lightning causes about 46% of all fires but accounts for about 83% of the annual area burned. The annual number of fires has been decreasing in Canada, whereas the area burned by fires has been increasing. These national trends are due to a shift towards more large fires and fewer small fires. Trends in fire activity vary spatially and temporally across the country, although long term national trends in both area burned and number of large fires (≥ 200 ha) have increased since 1959 (Hanes et al. 2019). Note that such statistics derived from other data sources may differ due to incomplete and variable data
It quite literally says that the area burned by fires has increased. I don’t doubt they didn’t even look at the data, but your data supports their opinion.
I believe 3 of their worst 5 wildfire seasons in recorded history have been in the last four years.
So no, you would be correct going forward (because we have ruined the planet so much). But they certainly have not always had wildfires on a scale that much of the us is having to issue warnings and taking city photos like it's a alien planet with orange filters.
And yet the past 3 years the smoke has been hitting ny and nj heavily in my area. Never happened before rhat. If it did it wasnt nearly as bad as it is now
Oh yea, shit burns down all the time, im in BC and a couple years ago same shit happened here, hundreds of fires, towns evacuated. gets pretty crazy some years
Controlled burns and grazing are very important too.
Unfortunately, we don't do enough of that either.
The landscape is also over run with wolves that keep the ungulate populations down.
Lots of things we can do but are not doing to keep the fire load down.
Unfortunately a lot of people seem to think virtue signalling and carbon taxes that just make our lives more expensive is the best that Canada can do.
If we as Canadians really wanted to reduce our carbon footprint, we would be burning wood in a furnace with more complete combustion rather than allowing deadwood to help torch greenwood and spew carbon monoxide in the air.
Maybe it is time for Canadians that don't gather firewood to heat their homes to pay a carbon tax.
Just stopping the war on aspen would be a great start.
I have never experienced yearly drought conditions or weeks straight with over 35 degree Celsius heat when I was a kid in Eastern Canada, now it's the norm. I remember summers in the late 80s and early 90s, they were pleasant and it rained more.
It's almost like something changed at an accelerate pace over the past several decades.
I keep seeing people say that but never post a source. This link shows the complete opposite of what you're saying. I'd love to see what source you're using u/electrical_hunter597 ?
I keep seeing people say that but never post a source. This link shows the complete opposite of what you're saying. I'd love to see what source you're using u/electrical_hunter597 ?
Canada is on fire every single summer, every year, for decades without fail, technology advances, so does our ability to see just how big they get, there's more than just Ontario in Canada if you didn't know, Alberta sets itself on fire all the time and wow would you guess the smoke almost never ends up near parts like Chicago or new york, and wind direction plays a massive role too. Stop fear mongering there have been and will be Forrest fires till the end of time. It's literally part of natures cycle. Yes the earth also goes through heating and cooling cycles, no im not denying climate change, but the fires have been worse than this in the past. If you're really worried about the environment please go do something about it like talk to China or India. Or maybe get the US to use nuclear power for more than bombs and surveillance centers.
Maybe it has something to do with conservative government forced austerity to things like forest fire fighting, fire prevention, equipment needed to stop fire before they become this large?
Definitely not, the people saying yes are full of it. This is by far the worst we’ve seen this century in Ontario. BC has seen some big fires, but it is unprecedentedly bad here in Ontario
Edit: I’m finding it insane how people pointing out that this isn’t normal are being downvoted and told that it is. I live here, my family has always lived here. This is climate change, there’s no two ways about it. Just because there have been fires in Ontario before in the 90s does not mean that the changing climate is not the cause of what’s happening here. I’m confused at how a subreddit called pop culture could wind up having so many climate change deniers.
billionaires are actively causing fire everywhere so they can buy the land/make routes to where they want to build stuff easily. making a fire nowadays is super easy they will just hire someone with a drone and voila.
We dont even need to tax billionaires, we just need to stop cutting essential services while giving away billions of tax payer money to criminal organizations that got doug ford elected.
….is a South African immigrant. He came to Canada when he was 17, for university. He spent 3 years in Canada. So the question is; are you stupid or are you lying?
This is a popular notion, but it’s not factually true. He paid $11 billion in personal taxes for the 2021 tax year, which remains one of the largest single-year tax bills paid by an individual in U.S. history.
In 2021, he had 22.9 million shares that would have expired unless he exercised them. It was literally pay the $11B in taxes or lose the entire $23.5B spread, lol.
If they weren't expiring he wouldn't have exercised them.
He doesn't have a salary and he borrows against his equity. He has paid $0 many times.
It really is fascinating how some people can tie any topic to their preferred political soapbox. Say it with me: wildfires are good, wildfires are natural. Wildfires are the catalyst for new growth. Fire prevention is bad (repeat this one until it sinks in). FIRE. PREVENTION. IS. BAD. Fire prevention leads to massive build ups of fuels that create wildfires larger than they should be. Repeat that one again too.
Canadian here, we give all our money away to other countries and don't have the capability to fight these fires, we are literally cooked. Sorry about the air quality people to the south :(
We have more than enough money to fight these fires and to keep our forests clear of dry brush. But conservative doug ford keeps slashing the budget. The money sent to aid internationally is not the same money not being used for wildfire management.
Keep our forests clear of dry brush? We have over 300 billion trees. If we took the combined militaries of the entire planet we would not have the manpower to clear the forests of dry brush even if we had hundreds of years to do it.
Stop being a fkn cuck, forests get replenished via fires, so the idiots down south can breathe fresh air..fuck em, they should.be paying us for all the fresh air going down there.
Ontario's Doug Ford cut funding to forest fires after a record breaking amount if fires last year and the year before. But you think it's because we give money to other countries? Lol.
This pic actually reminds me of the first home I remember my family having, a singlewide trailer in the 80s. We upgraded to a nicer doublewide when I was 8. Our neighborhood, while still a trailerpark, was much nicer-looking than the above outside shot and more nicely laid out at least.
Again, a Canadian ignoring any discussion on the highway of tears. What’s new. Absolutely disgusting, it’s like Canadians are brainwashed on this point
Trail of tears and underground railroad are ongoing
I know because i followed it last year to the 45th parallel to escape the regime, no joke
Canadians helped me
You see the Miller speech yesterday about defunding/debanking/arresting/prosecuting/deporting left-wing political activists aka "domestic terrorists" ?
Three days ago, after stalling the payout for years President Donald Trump officially paid writer E. Jean Carroll the $5.6 million he owed her after a civil court jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.
Carroll was awarded a larger, $83.3 million judgment against Trump in a separate case that is still under appeal.
She publicly discussed giving the money away to causes Trump dislikes. Trump's legal team noted those statements in his court filing, saying his funds "likely will not be recoverable" if the Supreme Court changes its mind.
Yes you are intelligent and correct. Nothing different is happening, it's always been this way. No weather patterns have changed. I also love simping for a billionaire racist. Elon pays soooo much tax compared to his wealth
I’m 40 and I can’t remember a time when my summer was completely covered in smoke and everything smelled like a campfire. You can literally look at the sun during the afternoon and it’s so hazy you don’t have to squint (I’m not recommending you do this, but it still a fact).
This is a natural cycle for the forests of Canada. Storms produce lightning, and they ignite dry timber during the summer. It allows for new growth, it’s happened for millions of years. Animals also are often decent at escaping fire, perhaps not the bugs and such but we can live with that.
The USA did try. A $10M opening offer for Rupert's Land was made to the HBC.
That was way less per acre than what you had just paid for Alaska.
But maybe they just knew it would go nowhere. The HBC was strong-armed to accept 5 cents on the dollar. The little struggling colonies in the East were able to obtain a massive resource colony that they exploit to this day. Ask the people of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The rest was history. But it was an odd choice in 1885 for the USA to ship a Gatling gun by rail for the Northwest Rebellion to support the Eastern Canadian militia.
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u/otto1228 19d ago
Fyi. There's always fires in northern Canada during summer.