Tammy Gauthier Neal/Facebook Human-driven climate change “significantly increased” the likelihood that record-breaking swaths of Canada’s forests would burn in the 2023 fire season, says new research led by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The report was one of two reviews in major academic journals in recent weeks, produced by research teams from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Canadian Forest Service, and several Canadian universities. Wildfires burned 15 million hectares across Canada in 2023—more than double the previous record set in 1989—and a warming climate played a significant role in the conflagrations. Such is the conclusion of a climate modelling study produced by Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Canadian Forest Service, and a scholar from the University of Victoria, published in the journal Nature in December. Human-induced climate change “significantly increased” the chances of experiencing 2023’s record annual area burned amount, the authors write. Human influence on the climate also made it “more than five times as likely” that the 2023 fire season would be a very long one. “Substantial areas” across the country burned “almost continuously” for nearly six months in 2023—fire activity that kept Canada “at its highest National Preparedness Level for an unprecedented 120 continuous days,” the study notes. “Longer fire seasons provide a longer window for fire-conducive weather to occur and limit the opportunities for prescribed burns for wildfire mitigation, which can lead to more large wildfires,” the authors write. The widespread incidence of “synchronous extreme fire weather” throughout the country was made “much more likely” thanks to anthropogenic climate change. Weather feeds wildfires primarily by drying out available fuels—both decaying organic material on the forest floor, known as “duff,” and the living trees themselves. Strong winds and/or storms can also fan flames. The 2023 fire season produced correspondingly ferocious levels of carbon dioxide […]
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