The 2024 Canadian wildfire season is on track to be the second-worst season for fires since 1995, lasting longer and incurring more damage due to hotter and drier weather as a result of climate change.
This year has seen 5.3 million hectares burned in western Canada so far across 5,629 wildfires falling short of only last year’s record in the past 20 years. is on track to be the second worst on record, with 5.3 million hectares burned in western Canada so far this year. Dry and hot weather, encouraged by global climate change, has resulted in more severe and aggressive wildfires, particularly in bordering prairies where vegetation has not yet adapted to warmer climate and.
Roughly 40 percent of Canada’s boreal forests sit on top of permafrost, a thick layer of frozen soil that stores roughly 1,700 billion metric tons of greenhouse gasses. Degrading permafrost would release those greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, increasing the effects of climate change.
Other effects of permafrost thawing include increased water scarcity that could lead to forest death in drought prone regions, according to Canadian Science Publishing.
With the global temperature projected to rise at least two degrees celsius by 2050 and 5 degrees celsius by the end of the century, wildfires will be more severe and harder to control. The combination of increasing temperatures, drier vegetation due to drought, and prolonged wildfire seasons will have lasting effects on Canada’s forests and ecosystem, as well as the planet’s health.
Frequent and out-of-control fires will make it more difficult for forests to regenerate themselves by burning too hot for new seeds to sprout and destroying nutrients in the soil, causing forests to be less dense and diverse, and possibly leading to desertification in the future.
The Canadian forest fires are also considered “carbon sinks” since they capture carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Trees hold roughly 12 percent of Earth’s carbon, equivalent to 36 years of carbon emissions, but tree loss caused by extreme fires has increased by at least 5.4 percent worldwide from 2001 to 2023.
Deforestation also has negative effects on forest habitats, threatening animals who call the forest their home, and overall ecosystems with disruptions to the water cycle. Wildfires cause large forests to be broken up into smaller isolated areas, leading to biodiversity loss.
The 2024 numbers trail behind the 2023 season, which burned over 18 million hectares in the southern areas of Canada and caused $880 million in damages in the municipality of Jasper, which experts have described as “unprecedented.”
The best way to combat proliferating wildfires is by reducing carbon emissions. Carbon emissions are steadily causing the climate to warm, leading to hotter, dryer conditions that are ideal for the ignition and spread of fires, according to a report by Climate Science Special.
If you are interested in helping the firefighters’s efforts fight the 2024 forest fires across Canada, please consider donating to any of these fundraisers here.
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