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“Schools across the U.S. East Coast canceled outdoor activities, airline traffic slowed and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors on Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in thick, yellow haze… The skies above New York and many other North American cities grew progressively hazier through Wednesday, with an eerie yellowish tinge filtering through the smoky canopy. The air smelled like burning wood.” Reuters
The right argues that the fires are primarily due to bad forest management, not climate change.
“Don’t fall for the propaganda that climate change is to blame… Green ideology and chronic government underfunding mean that the forests currently ablaze have not been managed properly for years…
“Instead of dead wood and undergrowth being removed regularly using low-intensity controlled or ‘prescribed’ burns, forests have become overgrown tinderboxes. Fire trails that used to allow first responders easy access to the forest have closed over as vast tracts of land are locked away from humans. Logging and other commercial practices that used to self-interestedly tend to forest health have been phased out…
“Back in 2016 when Parks Canada had planned just 12 prescribed burns for the year, Mark Heathcott, the agency’s retired fire management coordinator of 23 years, warned about the importance of the practice to prevent future wildfires… Canadian indigenous groups also have complained that bureaucratic obstacles hinder their ability to perform the controlled burns they have used for centuries to reduce fuel load, flush out food and regenerate forests.”
Miranda Devine, New York Post
“‘Since the Paris Accords, the 4 major U.S. banks—including 2 with HQs here in the city with the worst tonight—have lent over $1 trillion for new fossil fuel supply projects,’ New York City comptroller Brad Lander tweeted Tuesday. ‘Tonight’s a smoke signal that it’s time for them to stop.’ Maybe the smoke clouded his judgment. The reality is that even if U.S. banks stopped financing fossil-fuel projects today, global CO2 emissions would rise for decades owing to growing coal production in India and China…
“Another inconvenient truth is that government policies to reduce CO2 emissions will be swamped by wildfire emissions. University of California researchers last year calculated that wildfire emissions in 2020 were two times higher than the state’s greenhouse gas reductions from 2003 to 2019. California wildfires in 2020 were the state’s second largest source of CO2 emissions after transportation and generated double the greenhouse gases of all the state’s power plants…
“Government land management policies that prevent wildfires from spreading out of control, such as prescribed burns, would reduce CO2 emissions more than offshore wind or electric-vehicle mandates. Alas, this doesn’t fit with the climate left’s book of Revelation.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
The left argues that the fires are a symptom of climate change.
The left argues that the fires are a symptom of climate change.
“These wildfires are a clear effect of climate change… While wildfires can be sparked in many different ways, the rapidity with which they spread is proportional to how hot and dry the ambient environment is. There exists a strong link between the frequency and intensity of heat domes and human-caused climate change. A number of high-end heat domes have already fostered wildfire outbreaks across Canada this year, and more appear to be in the offing.”
Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic
“Rising temperatures will increase major storms and flooding in Maryland and the District in the coming years. But hotter weather will also dry out soil faster, leading to more intense droughts, too. Dry foliage combined with high heat and wind encourage wildfires. While it often takes time to assess how much climate change contributed to a specific disaster, a national increase in wildfire activity is one of the most predictable effects of global warming. So is sea-level rise…
“In the case of wildfires, that means more states and localities will have to consider adopting better forest management policies, drafting clear guidelines on when to close schools and other public services, and developing a bench of part-time firefighters ready to combat dangerous blazes…
“Wildfire risks will have to be assessed in places that had been too wet to think about such disasters. And it means that ordinary citizens will have to get savvier about avoiding toxic particulate pollution… In some ways, the haze could be making everyone see more clearly what lies ahead.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“Wealthier people and nations might be able to build fireproof houses and walls to fend off rising oceans. They can even wear Bane-mask-like Dyson Zones to filter air and noise. But ignoring the universal effects of a hotter planet, from shrinking biodiversity to resource wars to refugee crises and more, is much more difficult…
“Most Americans no longer need convincing of the reality of climate change or the urgency of doing something to get it under control. But for the vocal minority that still does, the evidence is now in the very air we breathe. If the Biden administration wanted to remind voters of the importance of the climate measures in the Inflation Reduction Act, or if activists wanted to make a case for more aggressive action at the UN climate conference this fall, they may have a hazy, miserable summer to help make their case.”
Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg
