"We've fallen short on impacts"

How to not be a party pooper, why we’re all neighbors now, what climate modeling got wrong, and 4th of July havoc.

Welcome to our summary of the news about fire this week.

This is meant to read as a standalone update, with a lot of rabbit holes to travel if you want to learn more about what's going on in the world of fire / the fiery world. I also publish it on substack, where I think it's a little more digestable.

If you just?see one thing:

I found the image above by Renaud Philippe that?opens this story in the NYT?of firefighters bowing down in the dust thrown by a helicopter extremely moving:?Canadian Wildfires Have Mobilized Firefighters From the US, Australia, France and South Africa. In my?recent blog post for Rain?I wrote about how?fire does not adhere to political boundaries, meaning that when it comes to fire, and especially to smoke, we thrive or suffer as one, and we're all neighbors now.?Sharing solutions and resources?(like sending firefighters to Canada)?is part of what should be a multi-faceted response solution to our current fire problem, which?the BBC says is getting worse.?

“The wildfires convulsing Canada have led to the mobilization of more than 1,500 international firefighters from across the world, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, with help arriving from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Costa Rica, Chile, Spain, Portugal, France and Mexico.” (note: they’ve just been joined by a?team from South Korea).?

Climate change and general fire news this week

Europe’s Atmosphere Monitoring Service Copernicus has released this?sobering new statistic, “The CO2 emissions from Canada's wildfires starting at the beginning of May and lasting through June 26 rank as the?largest annual estimated emissions in the group's 21-year data set”. Meanwhile PBS NewsHour interviews Professor Mike Flannigan, a climate scientist at Thompson Rivers University, who says, “Our models on temperature have been pretty good. Where we’ve fallen short is on impacts.?We’re seeing much more impacts from our warming climate than what we expected, and the impacts are only going to get worse and worse.” (This interview in last night’s NewHour was a close second for my ‘one thing’ so if you have time, I recommend it).?

The AP points out that people of color and lower income residents are commonly exposed to more air pollutants than more affluent populations, and that?wildfire smoke therefore impacts their communities more—exacerbating respiratory conditions they may have already developed from their other exposures. Historically?Black colleges are uniting with the US Forest Service?to develop a program to?diversify wildland firefighting teams.?First Nations deserve to play a bigger role stewarding landscapes?(especially to?apply good fire to the land) and?California winemakers are also learning more about fire management.?

An opinion piece in the?Wall Street Journal encourages the EPA to allow prescribed fires, while disagreeing with the?commonly-made connection between climate change and this year’s destructive wildfire season in Canada. And in New York,?wildfire smoke from Canada was jumbled with an aphid problem?that took over social feeds. If you’ve ever read the Bible (I have read some of it)?it does seem rather worrisome to be dealing with epic fires,?floods?and?bug infestations.?

Fire retardant remains controversial?even as California warms up and prepares to face our own wildfire season,?now with 24 additional firefighting aircraft for Cal Fire, thanks to Governor Newsom (who?was spotted at Grass Valley’s air attack Base?over the weekend). Governor Newsom pledged $72 million in the 2023-24 budget apparently with nearly immediate results—Chico is excited to receive this Chinook. “Cal Fire’s goal is to keep wildland fires at 10 acres or less, 95% of the time,” said Shem Hawkins, Chico Air Attack Base’s battalion chief and head of its air tactical group. “Any resource we can get that helps us achieve that goal is paramount.”

Independence Day in the US

ABC had a?dramatic story about extreme weather across the nation as we geared up for July 4th celebrations, and in their reporting, Axios says this?weather is compounded by climate change.?

Speaking of the 4th of July—this is kind of outside the scope of this newsletter (not being a big press story), but a friend of mine is a shepherdess who works with the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council to support fire safe communities near open space in her region. She’s a?great speaker on the topic of grazing?for fire safety, and her outfit?participated in their local 4th of July parade. I, like many others, really?love a good story about ruminants, communities, and fire safety, which contrasts with other stories like this one about?how many?fires were started in Contra Costa County on the 4th of July?(that would be 58) most of which were suspected fireworks-related fires (that would be 50 of them) while in?Corvallis, Oregon firefighters?had to change outfits as they traveled between fighting a fast-moving grass fire that they stopped a few feet from nearby homes, and a house fire. Fighting both fires?required full firefighting resources of several agencies in a 3 county area, highlighting the danger of fire posed by high heat & dry weather. Meanwhile on the East Coast,?New Yorkers were suffering from poor air quality Wednesday, but for once Canada wasn’t to blame (fireworks were).?

The 2018 fire that destroyed Paradise, Calif., began as a small vegetation fire that ignited new fires as the wind blew its embers. Image is from NIST via?this story in The Conversation. (image is interactive if you?visit it at the source).

Climate scientist Mojtaba Sadegh writes in The Conversation that?nearly 2x the number of wildfires are recorded in the US West on July 4th than on other days, and says that his team’s research indicates that?21.8 million Americans found themselves living within 3 miles of a large wildfire over the past 2 decades—and that this spike is driven by anthropogenic climate change. The Washington Post wrote about the?air quality problems that result from Independence Day celebrations across the country, while The NYT shared an alternative that some big cities opted for:?drone or laser displays. “‘Maybe there are ways not to be a party pooper, but to still have something pretty in the sky to look at, and not cause a big amount of pollution,’ Dr.?Dian Seidel?said.

Firetech

Cal Fire is?using AI to help detect fire, and Global News covers?some of the various ai-enhanced sensors that can be installed in forests?(special mention of the communities around Okanagan Valley, which experienced catastrophic fires in 2003 that?our founders Max & Ephraim experienced first hand).?

The part of me that grew up loving cars (my dad was into vintage ones), and that also enjoys a little dreaming now and then, is pretty interested in the?Bronco that Ford just donated to the fire department of New Mexico.?Aerial firefighting fleet operators are worried about pilot shortages?even while the need for aerial firefighting and availability of aircraft for firefighting both increase (at Rain this is meaningful to us because we are working to add layers of automation to some firefighting tasks, which would help with this shortfall).?

What’s Burning

Canada (we’ll be saying that for a while?according to Vox as well as?The Washington Post). As the East coast was blanketed in smoke again, the news outlets started up their stories once more after a brief respite.?The New York Times has this live tracker?which is basically an aggregation of their maps and short stories about smoke. Many other news outlets did the same last week including?CNN,?NBC?and Al Jazeera’s coverage featured video clips set to dark, forboding music: “Canadian wildfire smoke stretches from US to Spain”.??Siberia has declared a state of emergency?because of their wildfires, which are currently estimated at 151,000 acres and we’re watching a few fires in?Washington State,?Oregon?and Arizona.

I’ll be out camping by the side of a river next weekend, so I will take a week off from tracking fire news. Have a great mid-July and as always, let me know how this could be a more helpful or interesting resource for you as we keep tweaking the format.