High-risk, high-uncertainty events like earthquakes tend to fall out of view when we are occupied with more predictable seasonal events like wildfires, which have very visible effects on our lives.
Canada’s emergency management system is poorly funded and lacks consistent attention between disasters. This chronic underfunding has undermined public confidence and trust in emergency management.
Industrial-sized confinement farming systems pose massive challenges during hurricanes, floods or wildfires, including significant public health, animal welfare and socio-economic implications.
Unstable funding, social distancing and the likelihood that other countries won’t be able to help — these all raise the potential of a nightmarish scenario.
Canada’s boreal region faces bigger, hotter and more frequent wildfires that are increasingly unpredictable, but it lacks an investment in fire science that could help keep communities safe.
We think of Canada as a water-rich country, but we are not immune to water shortages or disasters. With some advance planning, Canada can avoid a water catastrophe.
Record-breaking wildfires made headlines around the world in 2017. Fire intensity will increase in Canada in the future with climate change, but we can invest in tools to improve the outcome.
Wildfires amid climate change may spark a radical shift in forest habitats and wildlife. They aren’t just a destructive force of man and nature. They’re a key factor in forest ecosystem renewal.