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To the Journal editor:
Blowing smoke recently, four Republican Politicians, John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar and Lisa McClain, expressed disappointment in the National Government of Canada for not doing more about the smoke from Canadian wildfires riding the winds to Michigan.
I find it disturbing that these four politicians cannot remember their high school geography or science. Canada is the second-largest country in the world, with a boreal forest spanning well over a million square miles. The forest is made up primarily of spruce, larch, fir, pine and birch.
I fought fires with a helicopter for the Nevada Department of Forestry. If the forest is as dry and hot as the ones in Canada, the wildland firefighters have no choice but to concentrate their efforts on saving towns and homes. The smoke wafting down to us is not their primary focus. Even if it were, no governmental policy or billions of dollars would make that goal a reality.
In the last few years, the Canadian boreal has burned at a record pace. This year may turn out to be another record setter and there is little anyone or any country(s) can do to corral these massive fires. At the time I am writing this letter, there are 857 fires in Canada, mainly caused by lightning.
The Republican politicians are blowing smoke. They are trying to divert attention from the great fire accelerator, global warming. If they had paid attention in high school science class, they would know the fire beast in the forest is heat caused by mankind burning coal, oil and gas. The rapidly warming forest(s) worldwide caused by burning fossil fuels have prolonged the forest fire seasons everywhere.
Extreme heat events are increasing the risk of forest fires by 4 times for each 1°C of warming in the Earth's atmosphere. The boreal is especially vulnerable to global warming because the snowpack melts earlier, causing the forest to dry out sooner.
Is there a cure? There is no comprehensive cure. The only partial cure is to slow the warming. We can slow the warming by getting our energy from solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power. If these politicians had been on the ball, they would have protested when President Trump decimated the brilliant work of the Biden Administration, which made the United States a respected leader in the fight to slow the warming.