Smoke filled skies in North America- the future is depressing.

[CoffeeAndCats3]

My Mum and Dad are on holiday in the NE of the USA. They have had days now of smoke filled skies and have struggled to do anything outside. They say it is like standing next to a bonfire, almost apocalyptic. They're considering leaving early as are worried it is damaging to their health.

I just looked into it a bit more and have done some google earthing of North America. There are millions of square miles of forests in Canada. As the climate warms and dries, a lot of this will burn. It looks like these fires and smoke will lead to months of smoke every summer for large parts of North America. America (Trump et al.) are blaming Canada for not 'managing their fires' but the reality is, this is impossible to do at scale. And America has their own issues with over 40,000 forest fires so far this year.

It's all so very depressing to think about. We've really stuffed the world up haven't we? I really fear for the future.

despite there being M's of sq miles of forest in canada, budget cutbacks have impacted forest management, and maybe include in this the dead forestry industry which did manage large sections.
years of dry weather hasn't helped but neither has cutting back regional forestry offices along with policies of waiting 24 hours.

i'm experiencing smoke from the boston bar group of fires, they could have hit that fire harder faster.
more brush clearing is needed along with keeping yards clear of combustibles.
remember most fires in canada are human caused.

Maybe if the US government wasn't doing everything in its power to accelerate climate change it might help.

The air quality data on the windy app looks pretty grim for a chunk of Canada and NE USA.

It’s pretty wild. Drove past my first wildfire today in the U.K.

That being said these aren’t new. We need to learn to manage land again. Might help to keep the farming families with generations of knowledge on how to do that.

Given Trump an excuse to threaten Canada with new tariffs over the smoke

I know. Just when you can't hate the man any more...

While these fires are devastating they are sadly not new. We are well into wild fire season now In BC alone there are 106 active wild fires. Of course climate change plays a part but there are many factors at play. Human negligence is a big cause of many of these fires as are the sweeping changes to the Forrestry industry. The Canadian lumber and Forrest industry has been massively impacted by a series of new regulations and policies. One of the biggest has been 'locking away' Forrests and deferring old growth harvest. This results in mills closing down and losing skilled workers leaving forrests unmanaged thus increasing the frequency and intensity of wild fires.

I was tracking it all when I was awake the other night. It was scary - Grand Rapids, Michigan, was 469 air quality. Somewhere else (I forget where) was 500. My UK town was 3.

This isn’t North America clearly but in my 50 odd years of farming I remember no fires (except stubble burning) for the first 40. For the last 10 there have been loads. Combines gone up in flames and field fires, some of which are massive. In fact so far this year we have had two fires, one on either side of us. One muck store went up and a field of hay. Both just so hot caused the muck and hay to ignite. Balers often cause the fires but so do people chucking fag ends or having a bbq.

It’s not the fires that worry me. It’s that harvest is about finished this weekend. A full two weeks before we even normally start. And 40 years ago we wouldn’t have started for another 4 weeks.

I don’t think the issue is so much ‘we’ve stuffed it up, haven’t we?’ it’s more how many people still are saying’ah we had hot summers like this as a kid’ and still are not willing to do anything at all citing china and India and the mncs in the us. Flying, wasting water, data centres, chathpt, temu, there’s plenty of decent sized steps that could slow things down but nobody wants to do anything!!

i think it is the lack of fire breaks causing the uk issue
i mean people smoked plenty in the 1970s

After the war Pittsburgh was the steel making capital of the US and I'm told that when the foundries were in full production you couldn't see the sun at mid day due to the smoke.

It costs money and the big polluters don't like that. There are no benefits to them even if it means their grandchildren might live in a better world.

We've stuffed the world up -you mean by flying to the USA for holidays, for example?

Yes, the seasons shifting to new points in the year is truly alarming. It's a bit of a boiled frog effect for most people on the sidelines - I said I don't think the combines used to be out until August when I was a child and got blank looks (talking to others in their 50s living in the countryside).
The whole reason the summer holidays are when they are used to be so kids could work on the harvest didn't it?

and they are now having to harvest at midnight

Yes, we've stuffed up to put it mildly

Trump et al are correct. Wildfires are not a new thing, if they are spreading out of control then it is the failure of the management of the land that is allowing it to happen.

I definitely have noticed seasons
shifting.

spring is now a 3/4 weeks earlier. Tulips out with daffodils. Warm
by feb half term. Then colder beg dec now August now feels like Sept to me.

Yet Greenpeace and Greta Thunberg are mocked and leaders are elected who only want to enrich themselves. Insanity.

Yep. Totally agree. My parents are well off, and some of the biggest emitters I know, yet won't do anything to curb their output. It's very much a sore point.

This weather is from emissions 40 years ago.

Trump is not correct.

Fires of this magnitude never happened in the past, and it wasn't because people in the wilderness of Ontario were 'managing the land.' There was nobody there at all. Research has shown that for every 1 degree rise in average temperatures, there are 80% more fires, and those fires burn with greater intensity and for longer. It is almost entirely secondary to climate change and warming/drying climate.

Npo, this is wrong. These fires aren't even as bad as the ones in 2023. Why make stuff up? this doesn't help support any cause you might be campaigning for - anyone can fact check now in seconds with AI.

Yup. And the two week October holiday in Scotland was for the potato harvest. We never had combines out before 25th July pre about 10 years ago.

This week we are combining from 5am - 10am and 11pm-1am. It does worry me. Water problems for animals too.