New Study Links Canada's Wildfires To Human-Driven Climate Change

Human-induced climate change has made the extreme weather conditions behind Canada's devastating wildfires about twice as likely, according to a new analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA) quoted by Guardian.

The study found that hotter and drier conditions driven by global warming have significantly increased wildfire risk, as hundreds of fires continue to burn across the country and millions of hectares have already been scorched this season. There is a high risk of fire-prone weather in Ontario and the Northwest Territories, scientists found. The fires in these provinces have forced evacuation in towns and a shroud of smoke has cloaked North America.

What Did The Study Find?

The study by World Weather Attribution (WWA) found that fire weather seen in Canada this year is no longer a rare event. This event is twice likely to occur. Burning of coal, oil and gas had overheated the planet, causing the wildfire. The climate-influenced conditions, WWA found, dried vegetation and soils. Thus, they are more prone to combustion. The fires are now expected every two to six years in the Northwest Territories and every six to 15 years in Ontario.

This climate crisis made the fire conditions more extreme since 2023, Guardian reported.

Why Are Canada's Wildfires Getting Worse?

Theodore Keeping, an expert in extreme weather at Imperial College London and part of the WWA research team, told Guardian that Canada is heating up and has suffered a “fundamentally different” scale and intensity of blazes.

“The geographic spread of these fires is scary and shows that despite preparedness from wildfire governance, adaptation alone is not enough,” Keeping said. “We need to rapidly move away from fossil fuels to avoid events like this becoming even more of a reality,” as quoted by Guardian.

The study found that climate change has even greater role to play in Canada as compared to Spain and France.

“Time and again we see the same results: climate change is a key driver behind uncontrollably large and unprecedented fires. This shouldn’t come as a surprise,” Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and WWA study co-author said, adding that time and again studies have found that burning fossil fuels are detrimental to the climate.

What Does It Mean Going Forward?

On Wednesday (local time), the Metro Vancouver Regional District issued a yellow alert for Vancouver and its surrounding communities, CBC News reported, as wildfire smoke prompted authorities to give out air quality warnings. Residents were asked to limit their outdoor activity. An orange alert, which indicates a very high health risk, was issued on Tuesday (local time) for the eastern Fraser Valley, encompassing Chilliwack, Agassiz and Hope. Those residents were asked to avoid the outdoors.