Don't let the wildfire smoke cloud a vision of the future

Canada's 2025 wildfire season has already consumed an area the size of New Brunswick. It is the second worst ever recorded, with almost 2 months left to go. 

 

Wildfire smoke impacting air quality in the US has led Republican state representatives from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota to formally complain to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about Canada's inability to contain the expanding crisis.

 

Wisconsin state Rep. Calvin Callahan said "If Canada can't get these wildfires under control, they need to face real consequences. We won't sit back while our air becomes a health hazard."

 

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has pushed back, calling these attacks "timber tantrums".

 

There's no question that Canada is not doing enough to prevent and combat the growing wildfire crisis. It, and other aspects of the global climate crisis, is being driven by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. Canada is among the top ten GHG emitters, and the top 5 oil and gas producers - much of which is exported and consumed in the US.

 

But these US state representatives are in no place to criticize.

 

The US is the number 2 GHG emitter. US Republicans have repeatedly denied that climate change is real and Trump's "Drill, Baby, Drill" mentality pervades the party. 

 

And the hypocrisy of these state representatives complaining to the EPA is breathtaking. The Trump administration is in the process of gutting the agency, recently shuttering the Office of Research and Development, that conducts scientific research on the dangers posed by, amongst other things, climate change, smog, and wildfires!

 

It's the logic of, if we don't measure it, it's not happening.

 

This is part of wider cuts to the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Parks Service (NPS), the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). 

 

Combined with massive layoffs for US public sector workers in other departments and ICE raids to detain and deport migrant workers (and others caught in their nets), these represent a catastrophe for people and the planet south of the border.

 

To be clear, Biden's climate policies were woefully inadequate and he deported more people than Trump did during his first administration.

 

North of the border, Justin Trudeau's decade of rule in Canada has similarly masked rising oil and gas production with inadequate market based measures. And at the end of his tenure he reversed immigration policies under pressure from the right.

 

The new Canadian "nation building" push under Carney that has garnered broad support from right, centre and left leaning premiers, threatens to worsen the crisis here as well. 

 

This includes the push for new oil and gas development, "critical mineral" mining, pipelines and highways, and "deep sea" ports on James and Hudson's Bay. 

 

Increased military spending, cuts to public sector services and jobs, cuts to Indigenous transfer payments and curtailment of immigration are a part of the overall package.

 

All across Turtle Island it is imperative to push from the grassroots against planet killing policies, following the lead of Indigenous youth that are fighting for their traditional lands for future generations.