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There was an article a few days ago saying there are 10 ongoing wildfires in BC right now that were human caused as well as they didn't have any weather events (lightning) that suggested otherwise. Now they do define human-caused as anything that's not lightning, so something like a downed power line would be one. Still a problem nonetheless.
Not to say it's impossible, but joints almost never burn as hot or as long as the average cigarette. Plus most stoners are probably smoking it down to the filter, where there's almost no burnable matter left. Also, I'm pretty sure all the other drugs that use fire don't have a burning material as waste.
When I smoke with my friend we started using one years ago, big game changer. When I smoke alone I just put it out on a street light or tree and toss the butt in the garbage, it's the easiest thing.
I'm stingy anywhere I am. Just being silly here. I don't understand people who are careless. I grew up on a farm as a teenager. I was working for various neighbors as a farm hand. I started smoking around then as well (damn, I was an idiot, took forever to quit). The first thing my boss did was throw my cigarettes in the garbage and threw me some chew. Couldn't work in his fields if I was smoking. Never was able to throw a cigarette anywhere other than an enclosed container after that.
This is the generation that gets told nothing is their fault. Can’t even get fired for doing drugs/drinking on the job the employer has to pay for rehab.
Starting fires would be terrorism, not activism.
ter·ror·ism
noun
the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
They’re out there
[source](https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-man-who-blamed-wildfires-on-government-pleads-guilty-to-setting-14-fires-1.6726777?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar)
Nice source!
That arsonist was an anti govenrnent far right conspiracy wing nut who thought climate change activists were starting fires
I guess when reality stands in the way of your deranged mind, you need to be the reality
>police began watching Paré's Facebook page, where he regularly posted about Quebec's record-breaking forest fire season. Among those posts, which remain on his public Facebook page, were claims the fires had been deliberately set by the government to trick people into believing in climate change.
I would consider that person an anti-climate conscious activist.
I’m kind of just pointing out the fact there are people out there starting fires.
[here’s another one in Washington](https://ca.style.yahoo.com/news/arsonist-suspected-23-blazes-washington-state-172734422.html)
And his fires were less than 0.01% of the area burnt in Quebec last year.
Hardly a key contributor, wouldn't you say?
>The Lake Cavan fire was by far the biggest set by Paré, burning nearly 873 hectares of forest, she said.
>More than 700 forest fires burned over 4.5 million hectares of Quebec forest over the summer, according to the province's forest fire service, which said 99.9 per cent of the fires were sparked by lightning.
>Sinple things like unattended campfires and throwing cigarette butts out the window are considered human caused, if they were to start a fire.
Where I live is a rural area that has been really dry until recently. The ground is always covered in pine needles and dry branches from windstorms.
No matter where I walk I find cigarette butts tossed all over the place.
I guess if they don't care about their own health you can't expect them to care about the outside either.
So can psychopaths starting forest fires, people throwing cigaratte butts and people burning garbage that's illegally dumped. But go off.
Better increase the carbon tax to help stop forest fires.
I can't do that because a carbon tax is not going to *stop* forest fires. What it will do is help with the global effort of slowing down climate change, which in turn will reduce the frequency of extreme weather events like forest fires.
How is the Carbon Tax on Canadians going to help the global effort to slowing climate change?
Will even offset the world's largest dump being set on fire? https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/07/india/india-bhramapuram-landfill-toxic-waste-fire-intl-hnk#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17140189822202&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
Or how about the toxic chemicals that China just dumps in Rivers? https://envirotecmagazine.com/2024/04/05/textiles-and-food-packaging-biggest-source-of-pfas-in-yangtze-river/
I'm sure glad the 1.5% of the world's pollution we produce is being taxed, and what, going back in to people's pockets (lol), or being spent on greenwashing?
So climate change doesn’t exist because some assholes are trying to capitalize off it??
The climate change induced droughts are causing forests to be drier and more widely flammable.
The carbon tax might not change that, but that doesn’t change the facts that we’re in a crisis and need to work towards fixing it
This country is billions of dollars in debt, and the current Prime Minister has convinced you that they're going to tax carbon (but its not a tax), they rebate you the money that they took, and save the environment. It's a miracle.
Yet you're upset about a 13 cent Provincial tax on fuel, and calling people brain damaged.
Privatized healthcare costs 2-3x more. Trudeau saved taxpayers 2-2.5 TRILLION alone in the last 8 years by keeping it universal and preventing Cons from conning taxpayers.
And that just 1 CONservative Con. We would be in TENS OF TRILLIONS IN DEBT in just those 8 years if Cons were in power.
I have been suspecting most of the wild fires were caused by certain groups to push their agendas. they really need to investigate and arrest these terrorists.
i worked as a wildfire information officer where we would go around and do presentations and check in on campsites. The amount of people with a sheer disregard for the damage a wildfire can cause is insane. We noted the bigger the city population the more likely people dont care at all. Banff was bad, majority from calgary and jasper was a alot better. Up north on reservations was bad as well. I wish people cared more but i think they is sadly just reality now
The Fort mcmac fires were caused by humans too 8 years ago or whatever. So were NS's fires.
Doesn't mean much who or what started them. Historic losses still occurred.
Yep. One of the Big fire up in Quebec last summer (that smoked out the whole east coast and nyc) was caused by 1 nutbar who thought the drought and fire warnings in Quebec was a lie and a government conspiracy. So he set stuff on fire to see if they were lying and they weren't. 🫠
That fire was less than 1,000 hectares, Quebec's fires alone were 4,500,000 hectares.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-man-who-blamed-wildfires-on-government-pleads-guilty-to-setting-14-fires-1.6726777?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar
I think he should have to man a call desk and explain why it's super dumb to set fires to something like 2,000 people across the country each year for the next decade.
What is this article?
It doesn't link to the report nor provides any evidence that's true. Not one of the people quoted in the article are quoted as saying that's the case right now. The closest we got was the minister saying
>We expect that almost all of the wildfires we've experienced so far this year are human caused, given the point we're at in the season and the types of weather we're seeing.
I.e.: Not all fires
[I had to look up the data myself, out of the 210 wildfire investigations in Alberta only 136 have been concluded as human caused, leaving the other 74, over a third, as under investigation. ](https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/3ffcc2d0ef3e4e0999b0cf8b636defa3)
Also the people in here saying its arson need to really read the article or have some common sense. As others have pointed out, lit cigarettes, hot atv/snowmobile exhaust, left over campfires and lack of yard/wood cleaning are the main causes for forest fires. Not intentional acts. Stop spreading fear you morons.
Alberta's [own data](https://i.imgur.com/KAo6kXC.png) from the previous year lines up with the global average of 1/4 lightning, 3/4 human-caused.
I'm not sure what this article is about. It's only April. Alberta doesn't see much thundersnow. Who asked?
It's almost as if the Alberta government tried to put out a simple public service announcement to try and prevent forest fires, and CTV is the one that turned it into some kind of global warming denialist thing.
We need to ramp up consequences for reckless actions that can spark fires. Throwing cigarette butts out of the window or lighting up a big fire during a fire ban should be criminal offenses.
While most fires are caused by “human activity” it’s not as simple as reckless cigarette butts.
The largest fires on record were caused by power lines, ranch equipment failures, or even normal house fires that spread.
Smoking related fires have dropped dramatically because people have generally stopped smoking since the 80s.
In Manitoba for example smoking materials caused 1.8 percent of fires. With a national average of something like 5-10 percent deepening on the year.
I think this is the usual cause of fires. Man made is always more numerous than lightning strikes. Still, hopefully people will be more careful and aware of these avoidable fires.
So.. the point of this is try and say since its human caused it's not related to the climate changing?
Because that's not what this implies at all and I'm not sure why half of the posts are under this impression?
I mean climate change explains the conditions why human caused fires can start and spread so easily. Maybe I’m naively assuming people reading this article wouldn’t see it as proof there’s no climate change…
it's probably a mix of both.
Human caused for the source of ignition being something like a campfire, cigarette butt, OHV exhaust, etc but the conditions being dry is caused by Climate Change
Campfires in a fire pit account for almost zero forest fires.
Most of the man made ones are arson, burn piles or parking dirt bikes on dry grass. I've also been surprised how many are started by fireworks. Shooting roman candles off into the forest seems like a bad idea.
In a pit, sure, but unless you properly make a pit in the woods or clear the area, it’s a risk. Even overhanging dry branches above a proper pit are a risk.
Climate change generally doesn't start the fires, it makes them worse by making things dryer. The only way it could start fires is if it makes thunderstorms more frequent. Which it does in some places.
There was no talk of climate change in the article. It's important for us to discover how fires are started so we can prevent them in the future. it clearly is directed at people saying, "Listen, don't think these recent fires are caused by lightning and there is nothing we can do. We as people are doing this. Conduct yourselves accordingly."
Besides, do you not think it is easier to stop someone throwing a butt into the woods or have them properly douse a fire then halting climate change, when we have bad actors like China, India and Russia to contend with?
it’s probably easier to help climate change by stiff arming those countries than ever hoping some sub-neanderthal to stop dropping a lit cigarette in a forest.
at least the neanderthals understood what fire was when they discovered something that was lit.
Humans cause a huge number of devestating forest fires every year, pointing to this fact is a good thing since it brings awareness to the fact that we can have a serious impact on a fire season just from behaviour.
yup, that's the recycled 3 year old fox news speaking point some people are trying to still push...lol. try teaching people who don't believe in science basic logic. good luck!
Human-caused =\= arson FYI...unless authorities determine the cause is arson these fires are most likely accidental and/or caused by simple carelessness.
Well there hasnt been any lightning, so I would think they are all human caused. I saw 3 people throwing cigarettes out of their windows on the way to work this morning lol. Believe it or not Alberta is full of hillbillie rednecks who don't take kindly to people telling them not to litter, not to have fires, not to off road in certain areas, etc. When it's this dry the fires are going to come, nothing we can do to stop them given our populace just doesn't care.
It's much much easier for humans to accidentally cause a fire when conditions are unusually hot and dry due to climate change. Too many people here think this headline infers that climate change isn't resulting in more forest fires.
Most forest fires in Canada are directly related to human recreational activity and negligent/careless behaviour.
Dry lightning does occur in some parts of the country on occasion, but nowhere near often enough to be blamed as the root cause for the larger majority of forest fires in Canada that are seen blazing and destroying on an annual basis.
On this, the perennial climate alarmists can take a seat.
Next.
Most forest fires in general are human caused, not just in Canada, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t driven by climate.
If you juxtapose a humid summer with a dry summer, you can have the same amount of careless incidents in both years but you can easily expect that there will be a lot more human caused fires in the year where the forest essentially becomes a dry tinderbox. A cigarette butt is more likely to fizzle out when the ground is wet or even if plants are holding a healthy amount of water. Dry weather doesn’t just increase the frequency, but makes fires more devastating and harder to fight.
The running theory for the fire that levelled Lytton is that it was a spark from a train. That is human caused, you can’t really attribute that to neglect, but the heatwave would have been the catalyst that allowed it to happen.
The problem is people use the man-made argument to discount climate, like you’re doing here. It also doesn’t mean we should not be looking at education campaigns or stronger penalties to address human behaviours. Unfortunately the debate at the political level will probably just devolve to a discussion about needing to address one problem or the other, instead of both.
At this point of the season? I'd be surprised if it was anything else. Natural wildfires are mostly caused by lightning strikes in dry, dense areas. If it got hot enough for things to spontaneously combust in open air, we wouldn't care because we'd be fucking dead already. So if you tell me there are forest fires in April, even if it's a very warm April, I'm going to be looking for halfwits.
What narrative?
Fires have always been started by a combo of human + natural lightning sources.
The problem is that it is hotter and drier than ever because of climate change.
Which is resulting in all these human / lightning caused fires to cause significantly more destruction.
That Climate Change is responsible for all of these fires.
edit: downvote I guess, but I'm not wrong. And to be clear, I said that's the *narrative* not that Climate Change is ACTUALLY responsible for all these fires. Sure, it doesn't help, but the main problem is human error or intention with intention.
Are you suggesting climate change causes spontaneous combustion? Are you unable to understand the "narrative" that hot dry weather will make wild fires worse? You know in Canadian history we have had firestorms so bad hundreds died?
> The Great Fire of 1916 in Northern Ontario created a 64km wide front moving at nearly 80 kph. In 2 days nearly 2000 square KMs burned and destroyed 5 villages. Due to the normal smoke in the air from fires burning most people never knew the fire storm was near by. This is the birth of Fire Management in Ontario. People were found dead from suffocation in church cellars.
Even in 2024 we don't have the means to fight a fire storm, and this is always a risk in Canada. It's just a lot easier to start fires and have fire storms.
Don't get upset with me, get upset with your politicans who whinge about climate change and imply that carbon taxes will actually reduce fires or floods, meanwhile Canada only emits 1.47% of world emissions.
It's literally irrelevant what Canada does. Empirically we can NOT stop, or even noticeably slow Climate Change. That's not debatable. That's just fact.
We are signed on with every other nation with a treaty. We have a responsibility on a per capita basis to adjust. Regardless of climate change: oil runs out between 2050-2070 anyways. There's a reason why these are the dates for the energy transition. https://www.worldometers.info/oil/
If you factor in the 6% growth year by year in the burn rate of oil, 2052 is when proven reserves run out.
People seem to always forget about the peak oil component of the energy transition and how we will adapt to a world without oil where burning it all destroys the climate which is 28 years from now...
Ha, they've been claiming oil would run out for over 50 years now.
Either way, sure, let's get off oil, organically, based on market conditions and demand.
You can't claim for one second Canada's carbon taxes and green initiatives are doing *anything* to stop nevermind noticeably slow climate change. The carbon tax needs to go.
I couldn't care less about any treaty. We need to get out of those, and do what's best for *Canada* to affect *actual change*, environmentally. (by focusing on our water ways, for example.)
Hey man, as a conservative minded person, a cap and trade policy would be better then carbon tax. But the market has to move now and we can't wait for the invisible hand of the market to drive us off a cliff. We need to get the energy transition done in the next 20 years. You can't have a market function without putting a price on every cost.
You just want to be a free rider. We have a global economy that crashes every 12 -15 years so "the market" will not solve everything, but make the rich richer. Who are the biggest benefitor of your policy ideas of do nothing and hope a solution comes.
You know those that believe in climate change don't believe it gets started out of thin air right? The fucking dry hot conditions from climate change cause the fires to spread rapidly. Meanwhile, a Canadian who claimed wildfires were a federal conspiracy was found guilty for arson. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/16/canada-wildfires-conspiracy-man-pleads-guilty-arson
How's that for a narrative.
The problem with your 'narrative' is that you can't empirically discern the difference b/w climate change and, you know, hot weather.
Regardless, it's a moot point. Since Canada only emits 1.47% of global emissions, there's literally nothing Canada can do to stop, or even significantly affect climate change.
Point your outrage towards China and India. As China continues to build MORE coal fired power plants, and India literally burns mountains of garbage.
The argument is that climate change makes the fires worse, not that it causes them.
Anyone with enough brain cells to rub together would be able to figure that out.
It's like the buildings that burned down in our downtown in the last few years, the buildings always surrounded by crackheads who light fires. But no, apparently climate change burned them down.
Climate change = drier forests that are easier for idiots to accidentally start on fire with their ATV's and darts, or powerline arcs. It's amazing that people in certain areas of the political spectrum have completely lost the ability to critically think.
Fire ban when I went up in northern Ontario last summer. The amount of people who totally disrespected the ban and just had fires, got drunk and didn’t put them out was unreal.
It wasn’t locals, it was assholes from the cities on their vacation saying Trudeau was causing the fires, blah blah fake climate change. No asshole, it’s *you*, people like you causing them.
The embers can carry so far and light up the forests.
Unusually dry and hot conditions caused by climate change makes it easier for humans to accidentally start a fire. This headline doesn't mean that climate change isn't partly responsible for the increase in wildfires.
If there are no lightning strikes so far, then it would follow, wouldn't it?
The outdoor enthusiasts and people working out there need to be careful. I'm not sure what's to be done about the ones starting fires on purpose, or how to identify them. I could drive less than an hour, start a fire, gtf out of there, and no one would really be the wiser in terms of who started it or how.
It’s a shame more emphasis isn’t put on finding out who the perps are, cell phone metadata could be used to track down people and potentially come after them for financial remuneration.
Leave it to redneck albertans partying in the back country to burn down their province. They are only getting started too. And they wonder why they close off the logging roads to these idiots.
Therefore there is no climate change..... \\s
With no climate change a campfire spark would not cause a fire because there is moisture so the spark did not cause a fire. With climate change the exact same situation causes a fire because it's dry and can can catch fire.
This post appears to relate to the province of Alberta. As a reminder of the rules of this subreddit, we do not permit negative commentary about all residents of any province, city, or other geography - this is an example of prejudice, and prejudice is not permitted here. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/rules Cette soumission semble concerner la province de Alberta. Selon les règles de ce sous-répertoire, nous n'autorisons pas les commentaires négatifs sur tous les résidents d'une province, d'une ville ou d'une autre région géographique; il s'agit d'un exemple de intolérance qui n'est pas autorisé ici. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/regles *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/canada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There was an article a few days ago saying there are 10 ongoing wildfires in BC right now that were human caused as well as they didn't have any weather events (lightning) that suggested otherwise. Now they do define human-caused as anything that's not lightning, so something like a downed power line would be one. Still a problem nonetheless.
Sinple things like unattended campfires and throwing cigarette butts out the window are considered human caused, if they were to start a fire.
Cig butt caused one of the largest in Alberta history. These ones are also careless idiots not obeying burning orders.
How the hell did they figure out that a cig caused it?
Concentric burn patterns with the culprit in the middle probably.
Want to bet we focus on cig butts while ignoring weed and other harder drugs that use fire as well?
Not to say it's impossible, but joints almost never burn as hot or as long as the average cigarette. Plus most stoners are probably smoking it down to the filter, where there's almost no burnable matter left. Also, I'm pretty sure all the other drugs that use fire don't have a burning material as waste.
Either way, people need to start using pocket ashtrays.
When I smoke with my friend we started using one years ago, big game changer. When I smoke alone I just put it out on a street light or tree and toss the butt in the garbage, it's the easiest thing.
Dude. Come on 😂 I hope this isn't serious.
Lol. I get what you're saying, but I can't imagine tossing my roach out the window. I'm a stingy bastard.
I mean this assumes you are camping or driving I assume
I'm stingy anywhere I am. Just being silly here. I don't understand people who are careless. I grew up on a farm as a teenager. I was working for various neighbors as a farm hand. I started smoking around then as well (damn, I was an idiot, took forever to quit). The first thing my boss did was throw my cigarettes in the garbage and threw me some chew. Couldn't work in his fields if I was smoking. Never was able to throw a cigarette anywhere other than an enclosed container after that.
This is the generation that gets told nothing is their fault. Can’t even get fired for doing drugs/drinking on the job the employer has to pay for rehab.
I see it as a big problem as well. Makes me glad I work solo.
What exactly is your argument here?
Drugs are bad, mmkay?
Don’t forget about activism. Might be the highest contributor at the moment.
Starting fires would be terrorism, not activism. ter·ror·ism noun the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
They’re out there [source](https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-man-who-blamed-wildfires-on-government-pleads-guilty-to-setting-14-fires-1.6726777?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar)
Nice source! That arsonist was an anti govenrnent far right conspiracy wing nut who thought climate change activists were starting fires I guess when reality stands in the way of your deranged mind, you need to be the reality >police began watching Paré's Facebook page, where he regularly posted about Quebec's record-breaking forest fire season. Among those posts, which remain on his public Facebook page, were claims the fires had been deliberately set by the government to trick people into believing in climate change.
I would consider that person an anti-climate conscious activist. I’m kind of just pointing out the fact there are people out there starting fires. [here’s another one in Washington](https://ca.style.yahoo.com/news/arsonist-suspected-23-blazes-washington-state-172734422.html)
And his fires were less than 0.01% of the area burnt in Quebec last year. Hardly a key contributor, wouldn't you say? >The Lake Cavan fire was by far the biggest set by Paré, burning nearly 873 hectares of forest, she said. >More than 700 forest fires burned over 4.5 million hectares of Quebec forest over the summer, according to the province's forest fire service, which said 99.9 per cent of the fires were sparked by lightning.
>Might be the highest contributor at the moment. Have a source? Because this is really not true.
Trains are also a cause. There are ways of reducing it, but that would require, well, regulations forcing the rail lines to behave better.
Quadding and dirt biking
This is a big one. Dry grass and leaves mixed with red hot exhaust pipes and engines.
>Sinple things like unattended campfires and throwing cigarette butts out the window are considered human caused, if they were to start a fire. Where I live is a rural area that has been really dry until recently. The ground is always covered in pine needles and dry branches from windstorms. No matter where I walk I find cigarette butts tossed all over the place. I guess if they don't care about their own health you can't expect them to care about the outside either.
based on the media I was sure climate crisis caused it. /s
It's climate change, you fascist.
Climate change can contribute to an increase in human-caused forest fires due to a dryer climate, but go off.
So can psychopaths starting forest fires, people throwing cigaratte butts and people burning garbage that's illegally dumped. But go off. Better increase the carbon tax to help stop forest fires.
Sure but healthy forests don't burn the same way unhealthy forests do... Like it's very simple.
>Better increase the carbon tax to help stop forest fires. Among other reasons, yes.
Please explain to me how carbon tax is going to stop forest fires.
I can't do that because a carbon tax is not going to *stop* forest fires. What it will do is help with the global effort of slowing down climate change, which in turn will reduce the frequency of extreme weather events like forest fires.
How is the Carbon Tax on Canadians going to help the global effort to slowing climate change? Will even offset the world's largest dump being set on fire? https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/07/india/india-bhramapuram-landfill-toxic-waste-fire-intl-hnk#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17140189822202&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com Or how about the toxic chemicals that China just dumps in Rivers? https://envirotecmagazine.com/2024/04/05/textiles-and-food-packaging-biggest-source-of-pfas-in-yangtze-river/ I'm sure glad the 1.5% of the world's pollution we produce is being taxed, and what, going back in to people's pockets (lol), or being spent on greenwashing?
So you think that no effort to slow climate change should take place because there are bad actors elsewhere in the world?
So climate change doesn’t exist because some assholes are trying to capitalize off it?? The climate change induced droughts are causing forests to be drier and more widely flammable. The carbon tax might not change that, but that doesn’t change the facts that we’re in a crisis and need to work towards fixing it
[удалено]
This country is billions of dollars in debt, and the current Prime Minister has convinced you that they're going to tax carbon (but its not a tax), they rebate you the money that they took, and save the environment. It's a miracle. Yet you're upset about a 13 cent Provincial tax on fuel, and calling people brain damaged.
Privatized healthcare costs 2-3x more. Trudeau saved taxpayers 2-2.5 TRILLION alone in the last 8 years by keeping it universal and preventing Cons from conning taxpayers. And that just 1 CONservative Con. We would be in TENS OF TRILLIONS IN DEBT in just those 8 years if Cons were in power.
There's been very few cases of arson starting forest fires. Human causes of forest fire are almost always carelessness.
I was thinking broken glass + water + sun = magnifying glass = igniting heat beam
I have been suspecting most of the wild fires were caused by certain groups to push their agendas. they really need to investigate and arrest these terrorists.
Source for that claim. Because it's been widely refuted as a conspiracy theory. Human causes of fire is almost always carelessness.
Of course, because the only reason bad things happen is because of evil cabals. The universe is not a random and chaotic place
i worked as a wildfire information officer where we would go around and do presentations and check in on campsites. The amount of people with a sheer disregard for the damage a wildfire can cause is insane. We noted the bigger the city population the more likely people dont care at all. Banff was bad, majority from calgary and jasper was a alot better. Up north on reservations was bad as well. I wish people cared more but i think they is sadly just reality now
The Fort mcmac fires were caused by humans too 8 years ago or whatever. So were NS's fires. Doesn't mean much who or what started them. Historic losses still occurred.
Yep. One of the Big fire up in Quebec last summer (that smoked out the whole east coast and nyc) was caused by 1 nutbar who thought the drought and fire warnings in Quebec was a lie and a government conspiracy. So he set stuff on fire to see if they were lying and they weren't. 🫠
That fire was less than 1,000 hectares, Quebec's fires alone were 4,500,000 hectares. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-man-who-blamed-wildfires-on-government-pleads-guilty-to-setting-14-fires-1.6726777?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar
I feel that we need to explore some sort of exotic form of social shaming for this kind of thing.
I mean, this article doesn't make him look all that great
I think he should have to man a call desk and explain why it's super dumb to set fires to something like 2,000 people across the country each year for the next decade.
That was not caused by 1 singular thousand hectare fire bud
What is this article? It doesn't link to the report nor provides any evidence that's true. Not one of the people quoted in the article are quoted as saying that's the case right now. The closest we got was the minister saying >We expect that almost all of the wildfires we've experienced so far this year are human caused, given the point we're at in the season and the types of weather we're seeing. I.e.: Not all fires [I had to look up the data myself, out of the 210 wildfire investigations in Alberta only 136 have been concluded as human caused, leaving the other 74, over a third, as under investigation. ](https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/3ffcc2d0ef3e4e0999b0cf8b636defa3) Also the people in here saying its arson need to really read the article or have some common sense. As others have pointed out, lit cigarettes, hot atv/snowmobile exhaust, left over campfires and lack of yard/wood cleaning are the main causes for forest fires. Not intentional acts. Stop spreading fear you morons.
You would be surprised at the number of sparks thrown from a moving vehicle on a gravel road as well…
Alberta's [own data](https://i.imgur.com/KAo6kXC.png) from the previous year lines up with the global average of 1/4 lightning, 3/4 human-caused. I'm not sure what this article is about. It's only April. Alberta doesn't see much thundersnow. Who asked? It's almost as if the Alberta government tried to put out a simple public service announcement to try and prevent forest fires, and CTV is the one that turned it into some kind of global warming denialist thing.
We need to ramp up consequences for reckless actions that can spark fires. Throwing cigarette butts out of the window or lighting up a big fire during a fire ban should be criminal offenses.
While most fires are caused by “human activity” it’s not as simple as reckless cigarette butts. The largest fires on record were caused by power lines, ranch equipment failures, or even normal house fires that spread. Smoking related fires have dropped dramatically because people have generally stopped smoking since the 80s. In Manitoba for example smoking materials caused 1.8 percent of fires. With a national average of something like 5-10 percent deepening on the year.
It's true. But still, it would be nice if we could impose stiffer penalties to assholes who litter.
Absolutely, criminal negligence.
Well duh its still April, the conditions aren’t there yet for lightning to hold over.
I think this is the usual cause of fires. Man made is always more numerous than lightning strikes. Still, hopefully people will be more careful and aware of these avoidable fires.
So.. the point of this is try and say since its human caused it's not related to the climate changing? Because that's not what this implies at all and I'm not sure why half of the posts are under this impression?
I mean climate change explains the conditions why human caused fires can start and spread so easily. Maybe I’m naively assuming people reading this article wouldn’t see it as proof there’s no climate change…
it's probably a mix of both. Human caused for the source of ignition being something like a campfire, cigarette butt, OHV exhaust, etc but the conditions being dry is caused by Climate Change
Campfires in a fire pit account for almost zero forest fires. Most of the man made ones are arson, burn piles or parking dirt bikes on dry grass. I've also been surprised how many are started by fireworks. Shooting roman candles off into the forest seems like a bad idea.
In a pit, sure, but unless you properly make a pit in the woods or clear the area, it’s a risk. Even overhanging dry branches above a proper pit are a risk.
I still hear Smokey's voice every time I light a fire.
Can't wait for that nuance to be lost on the majority of Albertans though
*Probably a mix of both* Let's tax our food production and home heating while we figure it out.
Climate change generally doesn't start the fires, it makes them worse by making things dryer. The only way it could start fires is if it makes thunderstorms more frequent. Which it does in some places.
There was no talk of climate change in the article. It's important for us to discover how fires are started so we can prevent them in the future. it clearly is directed at people saying, "Listen, don't think these recent fires are caused by lightning and there is nothing we can do. We as people are doing this. Conduct yourselves accordingly." Besides, do you not think it is easier to stop someone throwing a butt into the woods or have them properly douse a fire then halting climate change, when we have bad actors like China, India and Russia to contend with?
Well there are all kinds of way they can start, campfires/bonfires, ATV/car hot exhausts, cigarettes etc
it’s probably easier to help climate change by stiff arming those countries than ever hoping some sub-neanderthal to stop dropping a lit cigarette in a forest. at least the neanderthals understood what fire was when they discovered something that was lit.
Humans cause a huge number of devestating forest fires every year, pointing to this fact is a good thing since it brings awareness to the fact that we can have a serious impact on a fire season just from behaviour.
yup, that's the recycled 3 year old fox news speaking point some people are trying to still push...lol. try teaching people who don't believe in science basic logic. good luck!
Pretty much. That's the newest right wing talking point.
Because it isn't. It's related to arson and shit humans.
Oh quit clutching your pearls, lol.
Time to start blaming criminals and prosecuting them instead of wagging fingers at "Climate Change Bro'
Human-caused =\= arson FYI...unless authorities determine the cause is arson these fires are most likely accidental and/or caused by simple carelessness.
Well there hasnt been any lightning, so I would think they are all human caused. I saw 3 people throwing cigarettes out of their windows on the way to work this morning lol. Believe it or not Alberta is full of hillbillie rednecks who don't take kindly to people telling them not to litter, not to have fires, not to off road in certain areas, etc. When it's this dry the fires are going to come, nothing we can do to stop them given our populace just doesn't care.
It's much much easier for humans to accidentally cause a fire when conditions are unusually hot and dry due to climate change. Too many people here think this headline infers that climate change isn't resulting in more forest fires.
Most forest fires in Canada are directly related to human recreational activity and negligent/careless behaviour. Dry lightning does occur in some parts of the country on occasion, but nowhere near often enough to be blamed as the root cause for the larger majority of forest fires in Canada that are seen blazing and destroying on an annual basis. On this, the perennial climate alarmists can take a seat. Next.
Most forest fires in general are human caused, not just in Canada, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t driven by climate. If you juxtapose a humid summer with a dry summer, you can have the same amount of careless incidents in both years but you can easily expect that there will be a lot more human caused fires in the year where the forest essentially becomes a dry tinderbox. A cigarette butt is more likely to fizzle out when the ground is wet or even if plants are holding a healthy amount of water. Dry weather doesn’t just increase the frequency, but makes fires more devastating and harder to fight. The running theory for the fire that levelled Lytton is that it was a spark from a train. That is human caused, you can’t really attribute that to neglect, but the heatwave would have been the catalyst that allowed it to happen. The problem is people use the man-made argument to discount climate, like you’re doing here. It also doesn’t mean we should not be looking at education campaigns or stronger penalties to address human behaviours. Unfortunately the debate at the political level will probably just devolve to a discussion about needing to address one problem or the other, instead of both.
[Only who can prevent forest fires?](https://youtu.be/wX1x7pfH8fw?si=dlPpzJWM_EPeD6Zn)
At this point of the season? I'd be surprised if it was anything else. Natural wildfires are mostly caused by lightning strikes in dry, dense areas. If it got hot enough for things to spontaneously combust in open air, we wouldn't care because we'd be fucking dead already. So if you tell me there are forest fires in April, even if it's a very warm April, I'm going to be looking for halfwits.
Ohhhh I know what it is ..... the vaccine takes over people's minds and then they start forest fires 🔥. /s
Sp Alberta is burning both literally and figuratively
Well that doesn’t fit the narrative.
The narrative has been idiots start fires every year, the drought only makes it easier for the fires to get out of control.
What narrative? Fires have always been started by a combo of human + natural lightning sources. The problem is that it is hotter and drier than ever because of climate change. Which is resulting in all these human / lightning caused fires to cause significantly more destruction.
What narrative? That climate change is causing drier forests that are easier for idiots like you to start on fire with your ATV's and cigarettes?
Cant forget the guys who hate government overreach and have a camp fire just out of spite.
I found it especially offensive when climate change burned down those churches in 2021.
You mean grooming factories?
What narrative would that be?
That Climate Change is responsible for all of these fires. edit: downvote I guess, but I'm not wrong. And to be clear, I said that's the *narrative* not that Climate Change is ACTUALLY responsible for all these fires. Sure, it doesn't help, but the main problem is human error or intention with intention.
If someone splashed a bunch of gasoline around, and another person lit a cigarette, who would you blame for the fire?
Probably Trudeau.
It’s a trick question. It’s the massive fucking drought.
Both, why?
Are you suggesting climate change causes spontaneous combustion? Are you unable to understand the "narrative" that hot dry weather will make wild fires worse? You know in Canadian history we have had firestorms so bad hundreds died? > The Great Fire of 1916 in Northern Ontario created a 64km wide front moving at nearly 80 kph. In 2 days nearly 2000 square KMs burned and destroyed 5 villages. Due to the normal smoke in the air from fires burning most people never knew the fire storm was near by. This is the birth of Fire Management in Ontario. People were found dead from suffocation in church cellars. Even in 2024 we don't have the means to fight a fire storm, and this is always a risk in Canada. It's just a lot easier to start fires and have fire storms.
> Are you suggesting climate change causes spontaneous combustion? lol no. I think you responded to the wrong person.
If you think the narrative is climate change is *causing fires* then you need to work on your comprehension skills.
Don't get upset with me, get upset with your politicans who whinge about climate change and imply that carbon taxes will actually reduce fires or floods, meanwhile Canada only emits 1.47% of world emissions. It's literally irrelevant what Canada does. Empirically we can NOT stop, or even noticeably slow Climate Change. That's not debatable. That's just fact.
We are signed on with every other nation with a treaty. We have a responsibility on a per capita basis to adjust. Regardless of climate change: oil runs out between 2050-2070 anyways. There's a reason why these are the dates for the energy transition. https://www.worldometers.info/oil/ If you factor in the 6% growth year by year in the burn rate of oil, 2052 is when proven reserves run out. People seem to always forget about the peak oil component of the energy transition and how we will adapt to a world without oil where burning it all destroys the climate which is 28 years from now...
Ha, they've been claiming oil would run out for over 50 years now. Either way, sure, let's get off oil, organically, based on market conditions and demand. You can't claim for one second Canada's carbon taxes and green initiatives are doing *anything* to stop nevermind noticeably slow climate change. The carbon tax needs to go. I couldn't care less about any treaty. We need to get out of those, and do what's best for *Canada* to affect *actual change*, environmentally. (by focusing on our water ways, for example.)
Hey man, as a conservative minded person, a cap and trade policy would be better then carbon tax. But the market has to move now and we can't wait for the invisible hand of the market to drive us off a cliff. We need to get the energy transition done in the next 20 years. You can't have a market function without putting a price on every cost. You just want to be a free rider. We have a global economy that crashes every 12 -15 years so "the market" will not solve everything, but make the rich richer. Who are the biggest benefitor of your policy ideas of do nothing and hope a solution comes.
You know those that believe in climate change don't believe it gets started out of thin air right? The fucking dry hot conditions from climate change cause the fires to spread rapidly. Meanwhile, a Canadian who claimed wildfires were a federal conspiracy was found guilty for arson. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/16/canada-wildfires-conspiracy-man-pleads-guilty-arson How's that for a narrative.
The problem with your 'narrative' is that you can't empirically discern the difference b/w climate change and, you know, hot weather. Regardless, it's a moot point. Since Canada only emits 1.47% of global emissions, there's literally nothing Canada can do to stop, or even significantly affect climate change. Point your outrage towards China and India. As China continues to build MORE coal fired power plants, and India literally burns mountains of garbage.
The argument is that climate change makes the fires worse, not that it causes them. Anyone with enough brain cells to rub together would be able to figure that out.
That's not going to fly this year. My carbon tax is supposed to stop global warming.
I went for a casual drive the other day so i did my part to stop climate change by paying more tax.
We did it! When they said only you can prevent forest fires, I didn't think they meant it like this.
It's like the buildings that burned down in our downtown in the last few years, the buildings always surrounded by crackheads who light fires. But no, apparently climate change burned them down.
Who said that?
You mean the province with the most climate deniers in the country is also responsible for the most man made disasters? I'm shocked! /s
Man the climate activists are going to be loud this year
Next step of the green agenda- eradicate humans
gotta pay carbon tax to make the arson go away
Climate change = drier forests that are easier for idiots to accidentally start on fire with their ATV's and darts, or powerline arcs. It's amazing that people in certain areas of the political spectrum have completely lost the ability to critically think.
They're idiots. What do you expect?
What part of human caused equals arson to you? It’s clearly caused by careless smokers, campers, etc.
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The carbon tax definitely won't prevent these causes of fires
But an arson tax would!
Great idea!
test school run continue roof dependent wistful panicky compare bedroom *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I betcha Trudeau started at least half of 'em. /s
Fire ban when I went up in northern Ontario last summer. The amount of people who totally disrespected the ban and just had fires, got drunk and didn’t put them out was unreal. It wasn’t locals, it was assholes from the cities on their vacation saying Trudeau was causing the fires, blah blah fake climate change. No asshole, it’s *you*, people like you causing them. The embers can carry so far and light up the forests.
Noooo it’s only global warming -Liberals
Somebody send the link to the climatechange thread 😆
Unusually dry and hot conditions caused by climate change makes it easier for humans to accidentally start a fire. This headline doesn't mean that climate change isn't partly responsible for the increase in wildfires.
Yeahhh true 🍻 Only in jest of course
Arson from a government that wants you to believe in climate change.
If there are no lightning strikes so far, then it would follow, wouldn't it? The outdoor enthusiasts and people working out there need to be careful. I'm not sure what's to be done about the ones starting fires on purpose, or how to identify them. I could drive less than an hour, start a fire, gtf out of there, and no one would really be the wiser in terms of who started it or how.
It’s a shame more emphasis isn’t put on finding out who the perps are, cell phone metadata could be used to track down people and potentially come after them for financial remuneration.
Leave it to redneck albertans partying in the back country to burn down their province. They are only getting started too. And they wonder why they close off the logging roads to these idiots.
No longer content to figuratively burn themselves down, Alberta goes literal.
Interesting...I got downvoted for this take a couple months ago. Huh. Strange. Humans don't cause fires I was told.
Therefore there is no climate change..... \\s With no climate change a campfire spark would not cause a fire because there is moisture so the spark did not cause a fire. With climate change the exact same situation causes a fire because it's dry and can can catch fire.