Playing with (Wild)Fire

The hard-to-decipher and often debated cause and effect of climate change is one of the biggest obstacles to finding solutions to a warming planet.

But scientists aren’t debating that the Canadian wildfires are correlated with climate change.

Right now huge swaths of Canadian forest are burning, and because it’s affecting the northeastern U.S., a new audience is taking notice. Californians are used to the burning, the smoke, the poor air quality, but not so here on the east coast.

There are multiple climate-related causes converging to create the conditions contributing to the out-of-control fires: record-setting heat, prolonged drought, earlier spring and later fall seasons, and a weakened jet stream which can’t clear out the hot, dry weather since the arctic is warming faster than the rest of the earth. In Canada, many of the fires are started by lightning strikes which increase along with rising temperatures.

So the cause—warmer, drier weather—results in hotter, bigger, longer-lasting fires. And it’s predicted that these unprecedented climate catastrophes (fires, hurricanes, floods) are going to become our new normal.

What’s the true cost of these wildfires? It depends on what you’re calculating. One cost is the carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. In 2021, a staggering 1.76 billion tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere from burning boreal fires in North America, Europe and Asia. To give that number some context, that’s twice as much carbon released as all of the global aviation in a year.

There’s also the cost of all the lost trees that can no longer sequester carbon. A mature tree can absorb about 48 pounds of carbon per year and an acre of trees can sequester up to 40 tons of carbon per year. Over 5 million hectares (1 hectacre = 100 acres) of forest have already burned so far this year in Canada. And it’s only June! Trees can be replanted, of course, but it can take decades for new trees to absorb the same amount of carbon.

There are also the financial costs. Canada already spends $1 Billion dollars on wildfire protection per year. Over 30,000 Canadians have been displaced. There are the healthcare costs, lost wages, lost productivity, and rising costs of fuel and lumber. Timber companies and the oil and gas companies raise their prices due to shrinking supply, so consumers are forced to pay for the supply shortages. There is, of course, some irony in having consumers and governments pay for the costs of these wildfires when the companies whose products and extractive practices contribute more to climate change than any other industry on earth enjoy record profits.

So before climate amnesia sets in, what can we do? There are several options: (Over)Do, Do, Donate or Deny.

(Over)Do: Run for office, get elected, and enact meaningful legislation that will reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and sequester existing carbon.

Do: Vote for politicians who have the political will to take action on climate change, let your politicians know that climate change is a huge priority for you, invest in securities that have divested from fossil fuels, and reduce your carbon footprint as much as possible.

Donate: Impactful Ninja has a list of the organizations doing amazing work to preserve and protect our planet: https://impactful.ninja/best-charities-for-protecting-nature/; the Canadian Red Cross: ​​https://donate.redcross.ca/page/129206/-/1, and Firefighters Without Borders https://www.firefighterswithoutborders.org/ are all doing wonderful work.

Deny: Choke on the smoke, gawk at the destruction (until the next tragedy knocks this story out of the headlines), and pray for the victims.