Climate Change Spotlight: Canada Wildfires

The air quality map on my IPhone looks like the heat sensitive paper I used to play with as a kid. Right across Ottawa, there is a smear of deep maroon, like someone held their thumb on it for too long. Across the Northeast, all the way past Washington DC, the map is bright red.?

I’m currently sitting in the kitchen of my dad and stepmom’s house in Mercer County, New Jersey. My dad picked me up from the Trenton Amtrak stop yesterday, and on our way home we noticed a misty haze across the highway. I rolled down the window and smelled the distinctly sweet odor of wildfire smoke. I know this smell from my time in Los Angeles back in 2018 and 2019. But smelling it here, in the normally humid and lush New Jersey summer, is a new experience.

I text a Canadian friend and he sends me a photo of the dock by his aunt and uncle’s house in central Pennsylvania. The image looks like someone applied a sepia filter on it. He’s passing through on his drive back to Ottawa, and he knows it’s only going to get worse from here.

Back in the kitchen, I watch a few pedestrians on their daily walks around the neighborhood. No one wears a mask, but folks stop to talk to each other and gesture at the hazy sky. Around 1pm, the Air Quality Index says it’s 171 in my area. By the time of publishing (4:30pm), it's reached 204: Very Unhealthy levels for the general public.

This is climate change.

As of June 7th, there are 414 active wildfires in Canada, with 239 categorized as ‘out of control’. 9.4 million acres have burned this year, about 15X the normal burned area for this point in the year. These fires are spread across nearly all Canadian provinces and territories. An intense cluster burning in the province of Quebec is driving the smoke currently funneling through the Northeast. Millions of Canadians and Americans are under red-level air quality alerts, and this may be the first of many this summer.

This is all very disturbing. It’s scary, overwhelming, unfamiliar, and unprecedented. Many things trigger my climate anxiety and grief, but wildfires have always been particularly potent for me.

It’s the most common climate-related nightmare I have. In my dreams, I’m usually at home with my mom and we hear on the news that there is a fire close by. At some point, the fire is right outside our window, and it’s a mad dash to grab everything and get the hell out of there as fast as possible. For many Canadians, this nightmare is a reality.

I have a few coping strategies that work for me when I feel this way. One of them is writing about it, which is what I’m doing right now. It’s a form of compartmentalization: by creating a space where I can lay out my experience and my emotions, I don’t have to continuously hold onto it in my head.

?Another strategy is learning about it. This newsletter gives me a good reason to research the science of climate change instead of simply ruminating on it. As I read articles and find interesting statistics, I can feel a scientific understanding of the problem overtake my panic-induced reaction to it.

Here’s what I’ve learned about wildfires: ?

1. The science is clear: climate change has increased wildfire seasons, frequency, and intensity across the world. Read on for an explanation as to why.
2. Our climate is made up of feedback loops. In the case of wildfires, we are currently in a positive feedback loop where a warmer and drier environment is creating even warmer and drier conditions over time. Once things get too dry, forests become a tinderbox.
3. Generally, climate change is increasing global temperatures more than it’s decreasing them. This leads to warmer winters (less snowpack) and warmer springs (earlier snow melt). Once we hit the summer, the soil and vegetation are very dry. This is exactly what happened in Canada, where a dry winter and spring was followed by a very warm May.
4. As you may remember from your hydrology lesson back in elementary school, precipitation happens when evaporated surface water/moisture condenses in the atmosphere and falls back to the earth. Therefore, if there’s less initial water to evaporate, then it’s less likely to rain. The result: drought conditions like what we see in the Northeast and Canada

5. The fires themselves have both natural and human origins, but from my research it looks like a number of the Canadian fires were triggered by lightning strikes caused during ‘Dry’ thunderstorms. Dry thunderstorms form when there is dry surface air but moist upper levels. Most precipitation evaporates before it reaches the ground, but lightning still occurs. Just like a match, lightning can set the forest ablaze. There are currently Dry Thunderstorm warnings across much of the Northeast US. ?

6. The situation is too fluid to predict what tomorrow will bring, but even over the course of writing this article, my phone’s AQI map looks pretty different. The maroon has migrated over Scranton, and hopefully it will continue East until it hits the coast later today. However, it’s likely that some haze will stay across the Northeast into the weekend.

I don’t know if you feel any better after reading these bullet points, but I do. I had to look up scientific definitions of droughts and pictures of the hydrologic cycle. I had to figure out how to articulate these trends in an original way (no ChatGPT was used in this newsletter lol). When I think about tackling the problem, my brain is now focused on the causes instead of the current symptoms.

It also helps to see how quickly the smoke has moved passed Ottawa since this morning. Conditions will be worse this evening for the NY/PA/NJ region, but hopefully that will make tomorrow better. I’m also going to find comfort in the fact that much of the Northeast is undergoing a shared climate experience. I truly believe that we can use these shared experiences as a way to build bridges and mobilize action.

Where do we go from here?

After my research, I plan to do the following three things:

1.????Stay informed: The best possible source for Air quality information is https://www.airnow.gov/. All you need to do is type in your zip code and it’ll tell you about air quality in your region and the appropriate precautions to take. My favorite tool is the interactive maps which allow you to track air quality across the US and Canada. The website also has tons of great information about how to handle wildfire conditions.

2.????Wear a mask (again): It’s a good idea to get your hands on an N95/KN95 mask (remember those from our COVID days?) and wear it when you go outside until conditions improve. Unlike with COVID, cloth masks are not sufficient protection against PM2.5, which represents about 90% of the total particle mass contained in wildfire smoke. PM2.5 is made up of the smallest particles and can lodge itself deep in the lungs and may even be able to enter bloodstreams.

3.????Make an emergency Go-bag: You know how the saying goes: failing to prepare, we prepare to fail. It might seem morbid to make an emergency bag, but it’s one of the smartest ways to protect yourself, especially if you live in a fire-prone area. This great article from CNET lays out everything you’ll need.

As a final coping strategy, I’m going to take a break from my screen. After several hours of research and writing, both my anxious and science-driven brains are satisfied with how deep I went down the wildfire rabbit hole. I have enough information – more isn’t going to make me feel/think any better. It’s time to eat some chocolate, put on some sweet 80s tunes, and dance away the Big Sad (at least for a little).

Warmly,

Johanna