Fires are still burning in the Great White North
Last week, New York was briefly the most polluted city in the world, as wildfire smoke from Canada drifted down the US east coast. The winds have now shifted – but the fires are still burning. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre says 5.4 million hectares have been burned so far this year – an area roughly the size of Costa Rica. This makes 2023 the worst year for fire damage since 1995, says the Economist, when 7.5 million hectares burned. Importantly, the total number of fires started is about normal, but each one is spreading further and faster than usual as hot, dry weather turns vegetation into matchwood. The world has just experienced its warmest early June on record, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, with global surface air temperatures rising 1.5C above industrial levels for the first time in this month.
Photograph Chine Nouvelle/SIPA/Shutterstock