Sheila Gunn Reid: 'It’s an evergreen accusation that the wildfires that happen every year are somehow induced by climate change'
Michelle Stirling from Friends of Science joins The Gunn Show to add some truth to the super-heated rhetoric around Canada's annual fire season.
Thousands of Canadians in multiple provinces have been evacuated or put on notice to be ready to leave as fires burn near forested communities.
But is any of this unusual or worse than any other year, and if it is, are the carbon dioxide emissions of Canadians to blame?
Alberta, Canada: where Arson is the New Climate Change pic.twitter.com/gn9hKZFUfY
— David Wolfe (@DavidWolfe) May 23, 2023
Sheila Gunn Reid is joined by Michelle Stirling from Friends of Science. "I's an evergreen accusation that the wildfires that happen every year during what's known as wildfire season are somehow induced by climate change," said Sheila. "Why don't you explain to us a little bit about wildfire season? Because it happens in May, but even sooner, right?"
Sterling responded:
I see people don't realize that between snowmelt and spring rain, there's a gap that varies every year in April, May. And that gap depends on how dry it is. And we've had three years of La Nina, so the prairies are very, very dry.
We had a big gap this year with almost no rain in April, almost no rain. So and they used to say, 'April showers, bring me flowers.'
Well, they brought a big wildfire, and we also have in western Canada about 18 million hectares or so standing deadwood from the mountain pine beetle infestation.
So there's a map from Natural Resources Canada showing the scope of that.
And a lot of it is in Alberta exactly where those wildfires were. That map is from 2012. So I imagine those trees have been standing there dead for a decade.
Don't Get Censored
Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.