Trump blames management for Canada wildfires, but study points to climate change
A new study says climate change played a key role in Canadian wildfires that burned more than 7 million acres this summer, despite President Trump's claims that the devastation was a result of poor fire management .
World Weather Attribution (WWA), an academic collaboration that includes the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research and Princeton University, released a report Thursday pointing to climate change as the key driver behind Canada's extreme wildfire season.
The study found that hotter, drier conditions in northwestern Ontario and the Northwest Territories — including heat, wind and lack of moisture — made it twice as likely to cause fires. Researchers found that, under these conditions, Canadians can expect a similarly severe wildfire season around every six years.
"Sustaining an effective response through the remainder of the fire season will require continued interagency coordination, flexible deployment of personnel and equipment across jurisdictions, and sufficient surge capacity to respond to new large fires without compromising ongoing operations," researchers wrote.
Researchers described the last three Canadian wildfire seasons as "exceptionally severe," pointing to "record-breaking burned area and emissions" across the country. Subsequent peer-reviewed research, the study states, identified climate change as the driving force behind the "increasing severity."
The study advocates for an "integrated risk management approach" that can include adding future fire risk to timber harvest allocations. They also called for the strengthening of early warning systems and incorporating the knowledge of Indigenous communities to embolden risk assessment, preparedness and response.
Research also points the finger at carbon emissions, which trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere and consequently raise global temperatures.
Friederike Otto, the study's co-author and a climate scientist at Imperial College London, told The Associated Press that "if you care about anyone but the super-rich, you have to stop burning fossil fuels because the impacts are here and they're now and have huge consequences."
The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System , a website run by the Canadian government, said on Thursday that 14 new fires broke out, with a total of 674 fires actively burning across the country.
As these fires have blazed across Canada, massive plumes of smoke have blanketed parts of the U.S.'s East Coast. In mid-July, smoke turned skies orange over cities including New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and it caused air quality to plummet throughout the region.
Trump last month threatened new tariffs on Canada after accusing its government of "poisoning our air."
"We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!" Trump wrote on social media at the time.
Trump's blaming of Canada resembles remarks he made in the face of previous wildfires. The president similarly accused the California government of failing to manage its forest floors to prevent fires, urging the state to have its floors " raked out " in the aftermath of the deadly Paradise fire in 2018.
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