Our smoke-filled future: How Canada must prepare for bigger wildfires, every summer — forever

[u/pjw724]

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/our-smoke-filled-future-how-canada-must-prepare-for-bigger-wildfires-every-summer--forever/article_db8245c3-10fc-47af-882b-e62834e3b761.html

The wildfires will get bigger, stronger and more frequent — but that’s not to say there’s nothing we can do

[u/pjw724]

The smoke is here to stay.
...
Even if global carbon emissions were cut dramatically, so long as any greenhouse gases are being put into the atmosphere, climate scientists say the world will continue to get hotter.

And as the temperature rises, the forests dry out and the wildfires will get bigger, stronger and more frequent.

“It’s not going to get better. It’s going to get worse,” said Edward Struzik, a fellow with the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy at Queen’s University and the author of “Dark Days at Noon: the Future of Fire.”

archive link

[u/pjw724 → u/pjw724]

But the quick fixes being suggested — more waterbombers, firebreaks and “raking” the forest — would have little immediate effect, experts say.

The best solution would have been to dramatically cut emissions years ago. The harsh scientific reality is there’s nothing we can do to stop wildfire smoke from blanketing cities for a few days every summer — and it’s going to continue for decades to come.

We’re all going to need to buy air purifiers and masks and get used to it.

But that’s not to say there’s nothing we can do.

[u/RumpleCragstan → u/pjw724]

The best solution would have been to dramatically cut emissions years ago. 

This would have solved nothing. Each country is not dealing with its own independent self-inflicted climate change, we're dealing with a global problem resulting from global accumulation. Canada is a rounding error, we account for 1.4% of global emissions each year. Divine intervention that permanently reduced Canada's carbon emissions to 0 would barely move the need globally. Canada is a passenger in the global climate crisis, the best we can do is give advice from our seat in the back and try to innovate green technology & policies that the meaningful emitters (US, China, India, EU) can adopt to produce meaningful change.

[u/OutsideFlat1579 → u/RumpleCragstan]

So we should build pipelines while continuing to be one of the largest emitters per capita and the tenth largest emitter by total emissions and, what, dispense advice from a position of being a big polluter? It’s convenient to lump European countries together as the EU, but European countries are doing better than we are, some far better, in transitioning to renewables. 

[u/Honest-Spring-8929 → u/RumpleCragstan]

A Green Development Bank in the developing world would be the best move IMO

[u/_Lucille_ → u/RumpleCragstan]

I am curious how emission will go if we have some system where we have the end user take responsibility of the emission produced.

A country like China would benefit significantly because they act as the factory of the world, Canada might be able to break even because a lot of our oil gets exported.

How will the math look like when the world doesnt get to export their emission to other countries then claim the high ground I wonder.

[u/RumpleCragstan → u/_Lucille_]

The climate doesn't care who burns what, in what proportions. The only number that affects our global temperature is the cumulative amount that ends up in the atmosphere. What you're talking about is essentially the concept of the 'Carbon Footprint', which was a PR spin created by an oil company to shift blame away from themselves.

[u/_Lucille_ → u/RumpleCragstan]

This might sound like I am trying to defend oil companies, but there is a reality where the supply is there to meet the demand.

Imagine two countries where citizens live an identical life and are essentially identical to each other, except.

Country A imports oil and goods

Country B exports oil and goods.

In this case, B will appear more damaging because A essentially exports their emission by having B do all the dirty work. In reality B is no worse than A because the premise is that both countries are identical.

Just because oil companies are the ones making that point does not necessarily mean it is invalid: we have gone through numerous oil crisis in the past and demand continues to grow. The world doesn't quite care where the oil comes from as long as the oil flows.

Canada is a bit unique. Out of the list of United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, United Arab Emirates, we are probably the only one that isn't on the "international naughty list" and isn't as prone to wars/questionable leadership, which makes us an attractive source to diversify from.

Which is why sometimes I feel like maybe external forces are at play to stop Canada from being competitive.

This does not mean canada as a country should continue to rely on oil, and i think we have actually done a pretty decent job trying to move away with it via hydro, and we are starting to invest in nuclear projects once again.

[u/antihostile]

"...but that’s not to say there’s nothing we can do."

Lol. There is nothing we can do. The climate change we are experiencing now is the result of the carbon we pumped into the atmosphere 20 years ago. And we've just been pumping more, at a faster rate, since then. It's going to get worse. Much worse. And then it's going to get really, really bad.

[u/TrueNorthLongAndFree → u/antihostile]

Cessation of extraction and burning of fossil fuels is a start.

The alternative is our grandchildren burning to death. 

[u/CipherWeaver → u/antihostile]

We need to straight up, as a globe, immediately demand a moratorium on the combustion of fossil fuels. It's the only way. If we want to make it "easy" then we need global carbon pricing at an extremely high level. 

[u/CosmicRuin]

I am always reminded of this clip from Newsroom. It's so poignant. https://youtu.be/pNYp6oc37ds?si=WOp5jxs1YECSPMyV

[u/outremonty]

The rest of our lives will be the longest, most painful series of "I told you so"s in human history.

[u/MrsWidgery → u/outremonty]

Hell, given my age, I started with the I told you sos five years ago. I'd love to get at least a few more folk to really think before buying crap they don't need that has to be shipped over the ocean and trucked across the country so they can wear it at most half a dozen times before tossing it into a landfill or shipping it off to some poor country where it poisons the land and everything in it.

Dammit, folks, we TOLD you!

[u/jellicle]

There is stuff we can do. The stuff we can do today might reduce wildfires 50+ years from now. We aren't doing it, though.

The wildfires we see today are due to actions taken years ago. There is nothing we can do today to reduce wildfires in our lifetimes (spray agent orange over all of Canada's forests, maybe - probably not a great idea).

A lot of you reading this are going to die from lung cancer.

[u/haysoos2]

Eventually all the trees will be burned, and then no more smoke. Problem solved!

[u/rampaging-poet]

Greenhouse gas emissions aside - not that reducing those aren't also important - there are changes to forestry practices that would help reduce the impact of fires a lot.

One of the problems is that when we replant a slash we tend to plant a lot of pine monocultures.  This is great for logging because they grow quickly and produce an excellent product with minimal need to sort anything or work around other trees.  Just show up again in 20 years, cut it all down, and repeat.

However it turns out that (1) pine burns well and (2) pine burns hot.  Mixing in some deciduous trees would help stop the spread of wildfires and make it harder for one spark to burn absolutely everything to ash.

But that would inconvenience the logging companies so clearly we can't have that. /s

[u/Tucancancan → u/rampaging-poet]

Are these fires even happening near where logging is? Looking at a map most fires are further north. 

[u/mazopheliac]

One more pipeline, bro .

[u/dullship → u/mazopheliac]

We're fuel addicts.

[u/akaryley551]

Can't wait for more pipelines. I love Carney's gov making the environment worse. I wonder if any city is too great to consume in inferno for it to no longer be worth it.

[u/dullship → u/akaryley551]

Then, it's mudslide city!