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Climate change isn’t to blame for the wildfires. Decades of poor forest management, drought (which is naturally occurring) and human error is.
Right now, much of the East Coast is blanketed in smoke from multiple wildfires burning in Canada. How many fires are burning right now?
There were 437 active fires across Canada early Thursday — 248 of them out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC).
In the western province of Alberta, 73 active wildfires were burning early Thursday, of which almost two dozen were labeled out of control, province data showed. And in British Columbia, of 82 active wildfires, 29 were considered out of control, province data showed.
Some of the fires in Alberta have been burning for well over a month. We here in the Rocky Mountain region dealt with over ten days of smoke haze in May. Yet no sooner had smoke shown up in New York City, pundits and politicians started yammering about how this is all caused by climate change and we need to DO SOMETHING NOW.
Yesterday AOC went off on a rant and is going to push all her Green New Deal crap as hard as she can. Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders had their own little meltdowns. And some meteorologists went apocalyptic.
New York City’s air quality was the worst since at least the 1980s Wednesday afternoon, as thick wildfire smoke blowing down from Canada dimmed the city into an orange haze.
“It looks like Mars out there,” said Fox Forecast Center meteorologist Brian Mastro just before 2 p.m.
The city’s air quality index had risen to 353 out of 500 by early afternoon, which is considered “very hazardous” and was the worst recorded since at least the ’80s, he explained.
~Snip
The air quality index was even worse than after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but fortunately, the air from more than 100 out-of-control wildfires hundreds of miles to the north was not as toxic as the debris cloud from the terror attack, said Mastro.
Yes, the air quality isn’t good right now and yes, those photos of the cities engulfed in the smoke haze while the sun turns everything orange are quite something.
But again, climate change nor weather is the problem.
Poor forest mismanagement or no management at all is a key driver of how badly and quickly these fires flame out of control.
How does burning Canadian forests have anything to do with climate change?
— AmishDude (@TheAmishDude) June 7, 2023
Other than dumb environmental regs that prevent the removal of brush.
Yes indeed. The environmentalists have spent decades pushing for our forests and open spaces to stay untouched. Let them thrive in their “natural” state! Clear dead brush away so the forest floor can thrive with green grasses and flowers? NO! That’s not keeping the forests natural! Let cattle graze on open spaces to keep the weeds down and let grasses grow? Can’t do that because of all those pesky cow farts polluting the air.
Guess what happens then? That brush dries out. The open spaces turn to dirt and weeds. All it takes is just one spark from a cigarette, some camper being an idiot, arsonists, controlled burns getting away from fire teams (which happened in New Mexico last year and in Alberta this spring), or lightening strikes and the fire is off and running.
Experts in their field have been arguing for years that better forest management and brush clearing is needed to mitigate these huge wildfires. Currently over 12,000 square miles of forest has burned because warnings have been ignored.
Wildfire management agencies in Canada are at a tipping point. Presuppression and suppression costs are increasing but program budgets are not. Climate change impacts and increasing interface values-at-risk are challenging suppression effectiveness and resulting in more wildfire disasters.
As those experts note in their report, 47% of wildfires are due to lightning, and 49% are caused by humans.
Never mind all that. Climate change is responsible!
"Ugga, bugga, sky god mad!" — Chris Hayes' understanding of climate science
— AmishDude (@TheAmishDude) June 7, 2023
Yes, I giggled at that. But again, this just shows that people will ignore reality and facts and run to the climate change narrative every chance they get.
Drought? Climate Change!
Floods? Climate Change!
Rain or no rain? Climate Change!
Too much snow or not enough snow? Climate Change!
Yet we are supposed to trust the experts and their “science” on climate change. I don’t think so.
Meanwhile, let’s mask up with masks helpfully provided by NY Governor Kathy Hochul! Only one problem with that…they don’t work. Yes, they’ll mitigate some of the smoke issues, especially for those with asthma or other respiratory issues. However, it’s definitely not a 100% nor even a 50% guarantee that the masks will work.
That said, while I’m sympathetic to those on the east coast who are getting smoked right now, the fact is for the last four summers here in the Rocky Mountain region, we’ve dealt with a solid month or more of smoke due to all the wildfires that have blanketed the West.
If we can deal with it, so can you. Meanwhile, stop blaming climate change for poorly mismanaged forests and open spaces.
Feature Photo Credit: Lytton BC wildfire July 2021 via iStock, cropped and modified
Cameron says: Climate Change is the most convenient religion in the world. The absence or presence of anything proves its existence.
GWB says: But again, climate change nor weather is the problem.
Well, they aren’t the reason for the wildfires. They are, however, the reason the smoke is where it is (and, as you note, why the blue places are whining about it). It’s entirely the product of wind patterns and their constant shifting about. So, it’s weather causing NY to get the smoke, instead of, say, Maine.
Poor forest mismanagement or no management at all
Rant time….
One thing people need to understand: letting Nature be Nature is a way to spell catastrophe for a pleasant life for humankind. Nature manages undergrowth and old growth by burning it down. Heck, there are plants that don’t reproduce until a fire has swept through. If you leave “forest management” to Nature, the answer will be to “Burn that b**** down!” every so often. If there happen to be a bunch of Nature worshipers camping out there, then the proper answer is to let them burn along with it. (Think of it as a mostly peaceful protest by Nature.)
If you want to manage forest fires (and grassland fires) so that Nature doesn’t just torch a huge part of the landscape, then you have to do with tools what Nature would do with fire: clear out undergrowth, cut down old growth, etc. And, sometimes, your tools include fire – but you have to be more circumspect than Nature.
Understand that peace and harmony (and not breathing smoke) is NOT the state of Nature. The state of Nature is “red, in tooth and claw [and flame]”, and that goes for the vegetable matter, too.
or lightening strikes
/facepalm/ It’s lightning.
we’ve dealt with a solid month or more of smoke
Pfft. We dealt with the smoke from the root fires in the Great Dismal Swamp for two years back in the aughts. You’d think someplace totally waterlogged wouldn’t burn – you’d be wrong. (The fires would spread along the center of the roots, spreading to the next tree as the fire burned through one root to the other.)
GWB says: BTW, which side of the swamp you lived on and which direction the wind was blowing determined if you spent your day coughing or not.
NTSOG says: “Nature manages undergrowth and old growth by burning it down. Heck, there are plants that don’t reproduce until a fire has swept through. If you leave “forest management” to Nature, the answer will be to “Burn that b**** down!” every so often.”
Nature left to her own devices does burn the landscape and, especially, the underbrush which provides the kindling for major fires if allowed to become too thick. There are ‘cool’ fires that occur in Nature and clear out the underbrush and then there are intensely hot fires. If the underbrush becomes too thick fires become too hot and everything [underbrush, trees and animals] is burnt completely and even those plants that need fire to propagate seed don’t survive.
Blackwing1 says: They appear to also be ignoring and burying the fact that the pine beetles have devastated the Canadian forests, but that the lumber companies are prohibited by the (ultra-benevolent, always ecology-minded) Canuck government from cutting down the standing dead timber. So instead of “sequestering” the carbon content of these trees in houses and other buildings, it’s going up in smoke as the dreaded pollutant carbon dioxide. These trees have been standing and drying out for years, in vast swathes that cover enormous areas and are almost impossible to extinguish before they burn themselves out.
That’s a much better result for the collectivist/statist/authoritarian power-hungry asshats than reducing lumber prices. There’s no power and control in doing that.
KyPerson says: I live in a part of Kentucky that was a hunting ground for various American Indian tribes. They used to do controlled burns to get rid of saplings and shrubs and shape the landscape more toward grazing land for deer.
They did this before the settlers came, so you can’t blame the evil white patriarchy for it.
Cameron says: Now, now; when they do it it’s part of their beautiful culture and in harmony with Gaia. When we do it, it’s out of evil and greed. Hope that clears it up.
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