Although rains have fallen on areas of Canada’s wildfires, they have not extinguished the fires, they are still burning, and there are more than 500 fires across the country.
As the fires continue to spread, rising smoke causes air pollution that affects more than 100 million people in the United States, and ten different countries have sent firefighters to help Canada contain the out-of-control blaze. Cities were evacuated.
This has prompted scientists to issue warnings about climate change that could turn wildfires into “pillars of toxic smoke”, which will become more frequent.
On Friday, air quality was deemed unhealthy in cities like New York and Philadelphia, according to Air Now, a government site that assesses the nation’s air quality.
Canadian authorities in some regions have come to the conclusion that they have been allowed to continue without taking measures to control them, which prompts the question of why?
According to a statement released by the networkCNNCanadian officials stopped short of extinguishing efforts for a number of reasons, including:
remote areas
Canadian authorities have issued instructions to all local authorities to deal with and extinguish the fires, but some of them have reached the “out of control” stage, especially in remote areas, as is now happening in northwestern Quebec.
Local officials in northwestern Quebec believe Canadian environmental regulations should not focus on firefighting, such as protecting lives, property and infrastructure, especially since limited resources are available and a large fire is out of control. The scientist, Robert Gray, told CNN.
He noted that the idea of massive fires spreading across millions of hectares of forest land “may seem absurd, but it’s not entirely new.”
“There are always fires that firefighters don’t fight,” said Daniel Peraux, a fire scientist with the Canadian Forest Service.
“Sometimes doing so is expensive, environmentally unpalatable and wasteful with nature,” he added, adding, “Smoke is a problem, but even if we want to do something, it’s not clear how to do it.”
Not enough resources
Ten countries have sent firefighters to help Canadian authorities battle the wildfires, which have been burning for weeks, while environmentalist Gray said “Canada doesn’t have many resources to fight the fires.”
He explained that some provinces “have private contracts, but they have attracted thousands of people from outside the country to help.”
Gray said the most important factor affecting the management of firefighting resources is “financial constraint.”
Adequate prevention
The report emphasized the need to work to reduce “the chances of future forest fires ending in disaster”.
To deal with this matter, the fire prevention system needs to be strengthened, and with deliberate controlled forest fires to reduce the risks, it will be more effective.
For example, Gray explains that Canada is not doing enough burning because it burns about 10,000 hectares annually in British Columbia, which is less than burning New Jersey.
Climate change
Experts emphasize that climate change is worsening the condition of fires, and although they are essential to the Earth’s main ecosystem, they help plants grow and remove decaying materials, but forests have also evolved in their presence. An atmosphere of fire surrounds them.
The Nature Conservancy points out that “fire is an essential process for maintaining biodiversity” in forests.
Wildfires have been around for years, but climate change has made them more frequent and harder to control.
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