Wildfires burning issue at G7 as activists doubt it'll translate into action
BANFF — Activists are hoping the G7 summit's focus on collectively tackling wildfires rekindles efforts to suppress the fast-spreading scourge.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney has maintained Canada's commitment to make wildfire an agenda issue at this week's Kananaskis summit with his statement released earlier this month vowing committing its countries to 'strengthening peace and security, countering foreign interference and transnational crime, and improving joint responses to wildfires.'
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On Monday, wildfires, whose reach has touched nearly all of the G7 nations, was being discussed in one of the sessions and is scheduled to come up again among nations invited by Canada to Kananaskis.
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It's no accident Carney is eager to include the problem in high level talks that seek to achieve a joint, international approach, said Prof. John Kirton of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto.
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'Of course, Carney (as a former central bank governor) was known as the climate financier – he cares a lot and he knows a lot about it,' said Kirton, who was a forest firefighter in the mid-1960s.
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'The G7 has done nothing serious on wildfires until now and will be a brand new, out-of-the-blue focus due to Canada.'
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While wildfires have severely scorched some European nations in recent years, Canada's view of its urgency has been driven by catastrophic blazes that have partly or completely destroyed the towns of Lytton, B.C. and Jasper in Alberta, he said.
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Data compiled by University of Maryland researchers show that from 2001 to 2023, wildfires burnt 5.4 per cent more territory each year.
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While the number of blazes hasn't increased, their size and intensity has, with scientists saying climate change has dried forests, making them burn for fiercely and lengthening wildfire seasons.
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Canada set a record for the amount of land scorched by the fires in 2023 and the following year, a runaway blaze destroyed a third of the town of Jasper and so far this year, large blazes have torched large tracts of the northern prairie provinces, spreading toxic smoke to distant places as far away as the UK.
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In Calgary, the number of smoke-filled days due to wildfires have climbed dramatically in recent years, from a yearly average of 12 hours from 1981 to 2010 to a record 512 hours in 2023.
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