Currently, just about anywhere in Canada, breathing clean air has become a privilege, not a right. The IQ Air website, with its list of global most polluted major city rankings, has Vancouver, BC consistently in the top 50.
Much like those who have smoked two packs a day for years, many people feel their health won’t be affected by forest fire smoke. But the reality, as presented by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, is that in many places across North America, simply breathing air outdoors is dangerous to our health.
CAPE’s website reports that wildfire smoke contains a toxic mix of health-damaging pollutants which include nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and fine particulate matter. This toxic mix harms the entire body and can lead to lasting health effects.
The website further recommends staying inside as much as possible and using air filters and furnace filters, plus well-fitted N-95 masks when outdoors when wildfire smoke is present.
Most coverage of air pollution splashed across the TV, print and online media has to do with cities besieged by forest fire smoke. There are many blazes going, including ones in California, but the current focus in on the over 200 active fires in the boreal forests of northern Ontario. The wind feeding these flames is blowing epic amounts of smoke from these fires and blanketing American cities from Detroit to Washington, DC, which has put the sitting president Donald Trump on the offensive.
Climate change, driven by burning fossil fuels, is making wildfires bigger, more frequent, and more destructive
One of Trump’s initial claims was that “filthy, polluted Canadian air is invading the US,” and he feels that this justifies another round of massive tariffs on Canadian products to compensate the US government for the damages. What alarms me is that there is a modicum of truth to this statement, though many extenuating circumstances exist.
President Trump has declared that the fires are due to Canadian neglect of our forests, and taking precautions such as cut lines to contain fires or clearing the ground in the forests would have lessened the length and impact of these fires.
In truth though, if one were to take a hard look at the Canadian Boreal forest, it is clear that just about any attempt to clear the ground of flammable materials is a job needing to be done on such a massive scale it seems like a preposterous idea when one considers the facts.
Natural resources Canada indicates that there are approximately 500 million hectares of trees in the boreal forest. An expert interviewed on CBC online news stated: “the area is so vast and the fires are so remote they are often hundreds of miles from even the nearest road. Any attempt to send fire fighters or to try and use preventative forest management measure to lessen fire impact is impossible.”
The current policy of the agency in Ontario responsible for forest fire response, Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services, is to pick its battles, focusing on saving human lives. This means that in a situation like Northern Ontario is in right now where 200 active fires are burning, firefighting efforts are directed at fires that threaten populated areas. With no ground access to most fire areas, this is all that can be done.
To understand better why it is unreasonable to want to make the Canadian Government pay for the massive amounts of forest fire smoke invading the US, we need to understand why the fires in Eastern Canada are so horribly bad and getting worse each year. According to the National Geographic Society, while different issues can start fires, from campfires gone out of control to lightning, the severity of current blazes can clearly be traced back to overuse of fossil fuels, meaning coal, oil, and gas consumption.
CAPE is in total agreement, indicating that climate change, driven by burning fossil fuels, is making wildfires bigger, more frequent, and more destructive.
The US burns approximately 315 billion gallons of fossil fuels each year, while Canada burned 19 billion gallons last year
The US Census Bureau and Statistics Canada organizations indicate there are around 40 million people in Canada and approximately 350 million people in the US. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute lists the US as the largest consumer of petroleum products in the world, with 76% of their energy needs coming from fossil fuels in 2019 while the fossil fuel industry received $20 Billion in subsidies.
The Environmental Energy Study Institute records that the US burns approximately 315 billion gallons of fossil fuels each year, while Canada burned 19 billion gallons last year. This means that the US, which has 8.75 times the Canadian population, consumes 16.6 times as much petroleum products per capita than Canada does. This consumption, being one of the biggest reasons our fires are out of control, seems to be the exact opposite of what the US President is claiming.
I do want to make clear that Canada still doesn’t have the greatest environmental track record. There are massive coal mining projects here, we have just greenlighted the building of pipelines to transport oil, and we continue to use the Oil Sands/Tar Sands to extract all the dirty oil we can, all while fracking uses massive amounts of fresh water and causes many environmental concerns from poisoning ground water to possible earthquakes.
It seems to me that the solution is a simple one. We live next door to a neighbour who has been a close friend, an ally through two world wars, and our latest trading partner. I am glad that Prime Minister Mark Carney is taking steps to ensure Canada’s independence and financial stability, but perhaps more diplomacy could help us work towards a solution to both forest fires and climate change.
I propose that we send out a call for to Americans, including the MAGA hat wearing folks to come to Canada for some temporary work in forest fire control, forest management and fire prevention. We should treat them with kindness and respect and gently show them some of the benefits of Canadian living like universal health care and breathtaking natural environments from the rainforests in the Carmanah Valley on Vancouver Island, to the rocky shores of our Maritime Provinces. When the problem is more under control, we can send them safely home with a smile and a little money in their pockets.
After this is done, we need to sit down with the Americans and take an honest look at how we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work towards keeping this planet, our mutual home, clean, healthy and thriving without damning the next generation to inherit a mess they should not be responsible to clean up.
Leif Gregersen is an Edmonton-based writer, teacher, and public speaker who has written 12 books. https://edmontonwriter.wordpress.com
