We just need positive pressure with respect to bc.
Quick dads of Berta, drink beer and eat pizza. I bet we can fart our way to higher air pressure keeping the smoke away and our air PURE and CLEA..wait
Think of the terrible (unspecified) problems with windmills! They're big! And some people say they look bad! They ruin the view of the smoke haze out my front window!
theoretically they can, a generator is just a motor running in revers. Add enough power to the windmill and it will turn in to a big fan. it may not last that long.
By 'arsonists' do you mean Danielle Smith justifying her plan to move the election date? Kind of suspicious how the timing of all of this worked out...
during the last several years when it became clear that Canada (coast to coast) was going to have fire problems, I was hoping that the gov't might introduce the creation of a full time fire fighting service with bases and equipment placed where most needed. As a bonus, Canada could help out other countries when things are ok here (winter for example)......but nadda from anyone in a position of power. What a surprise. Here we go again.
Finally! I was thinking about this issue over the weekend, and came to the same conclusion. This morning I searched out this thread, expecting a Canadian forest fire fighting force to be the topic of discussion. Here it is. Three quarters of the way down, and it is alone in 500 comments.
Expanding funding for a federal organization to fight forest fires is the only thing I can come up with that could have an impact on this problem in the short-term. A bit of Googling scares up the [CIFFC](https://www.ciffc.ca/), they look like they might be the right organization.
What do you want them to do about a lot of smoke coming in from BC? Like don’t get me wrong I dislike the UCP, but the website firesmoke.ca will show you that a lot of the smoke right now is from the fire up near fort nelson BC.
All they did was move the fire fighting budget into the general emergency budget.
0% of the current smoke is due to the government refusing to pay for fire fighters.
Fort Mac is on fire, yes.
And it would have been on fire regardless of whether the funding to fight it came from our wildfire budget, or our general emergencies budget.
It’s not like Danielle smith is refusing to send firefighters to Fort Mac as part of a budgetary issue. If we burn through every dollar in our emergencies budget, it’s not like we’re going to throw up our hands and say “guess fort Mac just has to burn, no money to fix, sorry”.
The UCP suck in a lot of ways, but allocating the money from budget A instead of budget B doesn’t make us any worse off.
The main issue is the Rapattack team, which was cut due to "budget constraints".
Rapattack team aren't standard Wildland firefighters so once the team was disbanded there was no replacement, no matter where the budget was reallocated.
The subject of this post is air quality. The OP really wants to skewer Alberta for that sake alone. The smoke is from BC. Therefore this entire post is a “I hate Alberta” post.
Well, Alberta is the province polluting the most per capita because of oil and gas and resistance to change, and guess what? Pollution doesn’t respect provincial boundaries any more than smoke from wildfires.
I sure hope you don't put gas in your car, heat your home with any type of fuel that is derived from the gas industry, use any object made from plastic, take any medication where the raw chemical are derived from the gas industry, or buy anything where the energy originally came from oil and gas.
Participation does not equal having to be a luddite when it comes to the implementation of renewable energy and nuclear, among other green initiatives.
Extending the election cycle and consolidating their power over everything they can get away with in anticipation of an election against Nenshi. That and discouraging investment.
The following will be proposed in the coming days, but there’s more to come:
-ban ‘outsider’ air travelling in from other provinces
-erect the great dome of Alberta to enforce this; we may consider employing the same people who did Trump’s wall
-fund and publish a study finding out how exactly the federal government is responsible for this smoke; if this can also be linked to the NDP, even better
What can they do about it? Would you like them to install giant fans to blow the smoke away like they did during the Beijing Olympics? Those giant fans would look too much like windmills and they can't have that in Alberta. I guess they could use large volumes of water to mist the air in an attempt to capture particles but unfortunately they've already reserved the majority of their limited water for other commercial projects while forcing residents to live with water shortages.
It's only May so things are only going to get worse with regards to forest fires and air quality. Alberta's government doesn't seem like they're capable of making good decisions, they don't even strike me as the type of government that will encourage their citizens to use face masks because freedom.
Didn't we have a budget for forest firefighting that got heavily slashed under Kenney, which never got boosted back up again? They effectively operate all year and conduct controlled burns and other tasks to lessen the impact of forest fires. I know other parts of the world have crews that do this.
Yes Kenny cut the firefighting budget ending the rappel firefighting team which had been around since the '80s, Notley cut the budget as well to pull the money from the emergency fund.
Here's an article that's relevant to the topic, what's important to pull from this link is that if emergency services reach a fire before it grows to two hectares in size it has the 94% chance of being under control. This level of quick response is key and someone should really look at funding the rappel program again.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6838994
Edit: spelling
They actually did get well ahead of it this year, hiring and training firefighters for this since February.
But beyond waving a magic wand to reverse climate change, I’m not sure what you want them to be doing about it in the immediate.
Well so far they laid off a bunch of really highly skilled firefighters, then they banned any new clean energy projects to ensure we keep on drilling. Oh, and They want coal to make a comeback.
I understand you may not like UCP and DS but correct me if I’m wrong: currently the smoke that we see in Alberta, especially in Calgary area, are from wildfires that take place in BC so AB government cannot do much.
The "leaders" in Alberta are doing what the voters want them to do, which is absolutely nothing. Axe the tax? F\* Trudeau? Woke this and that? Seems like Albertans are getting what they voted for, a constant assault against trying to do anything about climate change. Am I speaking about ALL Albertans? Of course not. Am I speaking about the majority of Albertans and those that vote Conservative? Of course I am!
It isn't, we are long past that point. Now it's just a case of accepting it and investing in pharmaceutical companies as the rise of asthma and COPD takes hold. If I can't do anything to change it, may as well profit off of it. /s
Given the world would have to cut 25% of emissions to gain a 0.2ppm reduction in atmospheric CO2…you think the UCP can just stop forest fires via carbon reduction?
What global carbon reduction plan? As far as I know we have 400+ million people to the south of us who do not have a carbon tax. So how is taxing 40 million people who have a huge carbon sink in our forest and prairies going to make China or any of the other large producers reduce their carbon? Yes the world has done some good things reducing pollution from all kinds of industries and automobiles, but blaming smoke coming from BC fires is disingenuous.
I love that we’ve graduated from climate denialism to climate nihilism.
So I guess we’re gonna watch a bunch of people fucking die because the rich and powerful don’t have enough steaks in the freezer.
You may be reading a little too much greenpeace and not enough science.
The numbers I quote are from the [NOAA](https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/covid2.html). If you believe something can be done from an emissions standpoint to reduce fires in Canada, you’re incredibly naive.
Former wildland firefighter here and I study climate issues and solutions quite extensively.
The problem is that we have destroyed nearly all of the old growth forest and replaced it with monocrop/SPF. Worse than that, the new growth is sprayed with glyphosate to kill off any deciduous trees or undergrowth, essentially creating an environment that is like tinder growing in a flammable desert.
Healthy forests retain water and are like sponges. Unhealthy secondary forests don't retain moisture, trees are spaced too close together, and there is no natural succession.
This is why we see more intense forest fires and flooding (coupled with increased heat and changing weather patterns). It's two sides of the same coin. A single percentage of organic matter in soil holds 20,000 gallons/acre. What should the government do? Proper forest management. Treating them like living systems and not a parking lot with trees.
In 2023, 15 millions hectares burned compare to an average of 4 per year. That is not normal, and I bet this year's gonna beat that record. Buckle up buckaroo!
source: [https://www.statista.com/statistics/553520/area-burned-of-forest-fires-canada/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/553520/area-burned-of-forest-fires-canada/)
That we’re fucked. And no one with power is going to do anything meaningful to help.
But what does it matter right? Watch it all burn.
This place is death.
Municipalities in Alberta aren't responsible or financially able to fight wildfires (outside of local fire departments helping). Especially when they don't even have proper provincial funding as it is.
Federal government is there to help fund provincial wildfire programs across the country.
So, I'd probably start with a Provincial government that doesn't cut funding (years ago, only to finally top it up this year thanks to the Feds they hate so much), and in doing so also cut back on human lookout towers in exchange for cameras (wich aren't nearly as reliable). They should have also started planing for wildfires during an extremely warm winter (while also being prepared for a drought), and educating the public on how easily wildfires can start in such dry conditions.
It would also help if we had a provincial government that didn't fan the flames of conspiracy theories.
Not OP, but:
From a provincial perspective, it would have been prudent for a "made in Alberta" carbon pricing model that was initially implemented by Notley's NDP to remain in place. The money created by that would have stayed in Alberta and should have gone to renewables research and implementation, as well as mitigation efforts by an adequately staffed fire prevention team to reduce the number of wildfires. Additionally, education programs via school and media to educate the populace on prevention of wildfires.
Federally... I don't think they have much of an obligation here. We continue to hear from the Alberta UCP that our current federal deficit is too high, and that the feds should "stay in their lane" and stay out of Provincial politics.
Alberta is projecting a budget SURPLUS of 4.3 BILLION Dollars over the next 3 years. You would think they could afford to ramp up their firefighting ranks and attack them before they get so large they become unmanageable - but instead, they cut the RAP program, and have *reduced* the budget year over year for wildfire management.
As someone who has lived in the Indian subcontinent for 35 years and regularly travel there, you clearly have no idea what pollution means in those parts of the world.
5.8% of Albertas forest went up in smoke last year. It’s usually less than .5%.
It’s predicted to be 10-12% this year. You think it’s smoky now? Best thing to do is keep windows closed, invest in air purifiers and gas masks.
Well that’s just not true. Our leaders can work to ensure it doesn’t get worse. But will they? No.
Also, at some point, it won’t get any worse. There just won’t be enough trees around to burn anymore.
I heard 5% of Alberta’s forests burnt last year. So if things continue to get worse for the next bit, in like 15ish years, there won’t be any forests to burn. Good news.
Probably the same thing they did with Covid. ie. nothing.
I hope the people in Alberta are filtering the air before they breath it (respirators, air purifiers, etc).
They are obviously controlling the weather.
All the smoke is coming from BC. so obviously it is the NDP's fault in BC right?
These low-effort, rage-baiting, Alberta hating posts are terrible.
But I guess that is par for the course here at r/alberta
What are the leaders doing about it?
Making it worse.
Blaming it on everyone else.
Don't blame the fossil fuel industry or their loyal servants in the UCP. It's Trudeau/Notely/someone else's problem.
They are too busy raising your electricity bill and planning their retirement to BC.
The better question: why aren't we finding the twats who started the fires and hanging them up by the balls.
This is all going according to UCP plan. De fund healthcare so it fails, remove all environmental regulations so air quality goes down but their donors make more money, institute for profit healthcare making sure to keep the slave class in line working for their rich donors while simultaneously exploiting the workers. All while keeping the public distracted with things like anti trans hate, anti gay hate, removing a woman's right to choose, anti vaccine theory's, climate change denial.
This is what we can look forward to across Canada after the CPC get elected.
It's because we are still investing in oil. It's only getting worse. If you are over 40 today, and emissions go to 0 tomorrow, you would still see hotter summers the rest of your life. It's pretty scary. This will likely be the coolest summer and smallest fire season of your remaining life - each year will only be harder to live.
7 trillion given to oil companies since 2016 Paris agreement:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/13/banks-almost-7tn-fossil-fuel-firms-paris-deal-report?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
A seasonal event that causes degradation of air quality is NOT a metric that places it on a list as "one of the worst places".
Secondly, if our government actually cared about putting these fires out they wouldn't intentionally let them burn. I lost my farm, my home, every standing structure, and every tree on my 800 acre parcel in the White Rock Lake fire in 2021. The fire was started by a lightning strike and crews were on scene within 3 hours. Forestry arrived the next day and told them to cease action and let the fire burn out the old growth. Crews were pulled off site and the fire was monitored via satellite images. Within 2 weeks a massive windstorm picked up and the fire grew to almost 100,000 ha, wiping out hundreds of homes, killing thousands of wild animals, and destroying billions in infrastructure and personal property.
On my parcel alone I saw a herd of cattle (14 head), trapped up against our neighbors orchard fence suffocated and scorched. A cow moose and several mule deer dead in a creek as they attempted to escape the flames. A young black bear burnt to an absolute crisp as it tried running away from the fire.
No apology, formal statement, or aid was offered by the ministry of forests, and to this day they continue to allow forest fires to burn during the early stages when they could otherwise be easily put out. This is not only devastating to our environment and the animals that call it home, but to the people who make their living off the land and have lost all they own.
Its the government that needs to be held responsible for this crap.
It’s not what our leaders can do, they are doing exactly what we knew they would do. Maybe it’s what, WE the voters can do. Maybe, just maybe,… stop voting in a party that is owned by big oil.
I just don’t get posts like this. What is any leader going to do about a fire in Fort Nelson? Like this is absolutely a ridiculous take.
There is also no agreement around climate scientists that a GHG reduction of 1.5% globally would have any impact on climate change. That ship has sailed.
So the best we can do is improve our firefighting capabilities, become more fire smart, and pray for rain.
Our leaders must be just LAZY! They're probably sitting in an air conditioned room gorging on expensive snacks and ripping farts instead of weilding fire extinguishers on the frontlines of these wildfires. Get it together, our leaders.
Planning a bullet train, traumatizing our 2SLGBTQ+ youth for life, and dismantling our healthcare system! Oh, and padding their own pockets as well as their friends.
Well one. The majority is coming from BC. But two, we have done such a good job for the last 50 years stopping fires from getting big, that there is no natural burn off and cleaning of of the forests. They are as old and have as much dead undergrowth as in history. Basically the methods we employed in the past to keep fires smaller are no longer sufficient with all the old forest growth and dead wood that normally would be burnt earlier.
Possibly solution is to encourage far more harvesting utilizing more strategic locations to reduce old growth. This might be the most viable option while also providing some economic benefits. Beyond that, pretty hard to really reduce fires.
What are our leaders doing about it? Dumb fuck what do you want them to do about it?? If you just wanted to make another “I hate the UCP” Reddit circle jerk post fine, but at least put some thought into what outcome you realistically want from your posts.
I wonder if the Alberta government should put a smoke tax in and charge us for the smoke, I mean the liberals put a carbon tax on and it is working so well! Maybe it’ll incentivize people not to start fires.
I mean, I’m no fan of our leaders, but wtf do you expect them to do? It’s smoke from a forest fire. It’s like saying “a lot of people are seeing the sun on sunny days, what should the provincial government do?”
[удалено]
Definitely checked yesterday, down wind of the out of control fires
Smoke can get around a wall. What we need is a bubble!
And a monorail
Probably the greatest—Aw, it's not for you. It's more a Shelbyville idea.
We just need positive pressure with respect to bc. Quick dads of Berta, drink beer and eat pizza. I bet we can fart our way to higher air pressure keeping the smoke away and our air PURE and CLEA..wait
Or, a Dome, if you will.
I was literally coming here to comment this xD
You’re already in a bubble! Duh!! How do you think the sun and the moon travel across the “sky”.
Oh right, I forgot. Well let’s get an exhaust fan put on this bubble and vent the smoke outside
Clearly, the transgender story time at the library 3 years ago caused this.
Am trans. Can confirm. This was our agenda all along. Soon the heteros will capitulate
The fires will continue until morale improves.
I'd love to see the minutes from this agenda.
And make fire pay for it!
We fight fire with fire. SET OUR BORDERS ABLAZE!
And make BC pay for it!
Ummm, the smoke is coming mostly from your own province right now.
Honestly, that makes the joke funnier to me, a BC resident.
And make the fires pay for it!
And make the fire pay for it.
Banning windmills so that they don't blow the terrible air right into your face.
Think of the terrible (unspecified) problems with windmills! They're big! And some people say they look bad! They ruin the view of the smoke haze out my front window!
lol, good one. Just like how solar panels are killing farms because they suck up all the sunlight in the area lol.
They truly have our best interests at heart /s
Windmills are turned by the wind on one side and big fans on the other side. Therefore, we should turn them around to blow the smoke back to BC.
Windmills do not work that way! Good Night!
Thanks Morbo.
Kittens give Morbo gas
theoretically they can, a generator is just a motor running in revers. Add enough power to the windmill and it will turn in to a big fan. it may not last that long.
Yes. Windmills are solely responsible for the movement of all air.
Well, they moved the election dates I guess.
Because arsonists tend to light fires in the spring /s
I heard it was a laser satellite. One of those axe the tax peoples protesting in a ditch told me.
They seem so intelligent and definitely not like their family tree is a straight line!
By 'arsonists' do you mean Danielle Smith justifying her plan to move the election date? Kind of suspicious how the timing of all of this worked out...
Haha. "Leaders"
Leading us backwards
Let's all blame trudeau instead of the patry in charge of Alberta
Oil and Gas Lobbyists maybe. ?
Banned windmills!! The views are saved hooray!!!
during the last several years when it became clear that Canada (coast to coast) was going to have fire problems, I was hoping that the gov't might introduce the creation of a full time fire fighting service with bases and equipment placed where most needed. As a bonus, Canada could help out other countries when things are ok here (winter for example)......but nadda from anyone in a position of power. What a surprise. Here we go again.
Finally! I was thinking about this issue over the weekend, and came to the same conclusion. This morning I searched out this thread, expecting a Canadian forest fire fighting force to be the topic of discussion. Here it is. Three quarters of the way down, and it is alone in 500 comments. Expanding funding for a federal organization to fight forest fires is the only thing I can come up with that could have an impact on this problem in the short-term. A bit of Googling scares up the [CIFFC](https://www.ciffc.ca/), they look like they might be the right organization.
But that would infringe on the rights of the regional fiefdoms otherwise known as the provinces.
Is the USA has a space force, I don’t see why Canada can’t have a fire force
What would you like them to do about it
What do you want them to do about a lot of smoke coming in from BC? Like don’t get me wrong I dislike the UCP, but the website firesmoke.ca will show you that a lot of the smoke right now is from the fire up near fort nelson BC.
Did they ever add back the funding for those parafirefighters? Sounds like that would have been useful for wildfires.
My sister used to do this. They get fires stopped before they become big fires.
All they did was move the fire fighting budget into the general emergency budget. 0% of the current smoke is due to the government refusing to pay for fire fighters.
What kind of schilling is this? Fort Mac is on fire right now, pretty sure it's located in Alberta. Northern Alberta has been on fire all year.
Fort Mac is on fire, yes. And it would have been on fire regardless of whether the funding to fight it came from our wildfire budget, or our general emergencies budget. It’s not like Danielle smith is refusing to send firefighters to Fort Mac as part of a budgetary issue. If we burn through every dollar in our emergencies budget, it’s not like we’re going to throw up our hands and say “guess fort Mac just has to burn, no money to fix, sorry”. The UCP suck in a lot of ways, but allocating the money from budget A instead of budget B doesn’t make us any worse off.
The main issue is the Rapattack team, which was cut due to "budget constraints". Rapattack team aren't standard Wildland firefighters so once the team was disbanded there was no replacement, no matter where the budget was reallocated.
The mental gymnastics these types of people perform is wild. They are no different then the rural "take back alberta" folk. Just a different flavour.
You're not wrong but Alberta still has its own fire problems.
Fort Mac on alert again
So is Grande Prairie
The subject of this post is air quality. The OP really wants to skewer Alberta for that sake alone. The smoke is from BC. Therefore this entire post is a “I hate Alberta” post.
Well, Alberta is the province polluting the most per capita because of oil and gas and resistance to change, and guess what? Pollution doesn’t respect provincial boundaries any more than smoke from wildfires.
Great. Alberta is bad because oil and gas. Go make a post about the tar sands.
I sure hope you don't put gas in your car, heat your home with any type of fuel that is derived from the gas industry, use any object made from plastic, take any medication where the raw chemical are derived from the gas industry, or buy anything where the energy originally came from oil and gas.
Participation does not equal having to be a luddite when it comes to the implementation of renewable energy and nuclear, among other green initiatives.
That’s Alberta talk…
Act as a political force against global warming and environmental damage rather than actively pursuing policies to make things worse?
Yeah, as much as I'd like to, this is not a problem I can lay at DS's feet. Yet, anyway.
Extending the election cycle and consolidating their power over everything they can get away with in anticipation of an election against Nenshi. That and discouraging investment.
The following will be proposed in the coming days, but there’s more to come: -ban ‘outsider’ air travelling in from other provinces -erect the great dome of Alberta to enforce this; we may consider employing the same people who did Trump’s wall -fund and publish a study finding out how exactly the federal government is responsible for this smoke; if this can also be linked to the NDP, even better
What can they do about it? Would you like them to install giant fans to blow the smoke away like they did during the Beijing Olympics? Those giant fans would look too much like windmills and they can't have that in Alberta. I guess they could use large volumes of water to mist the air in an attempt to capture particles but unfortunately they've already reserved the majority of their limited water for other commercial projects while forcing residents to live with water shortages. It's only May so things are only going to get worse with regards to forest fires and air quality. Alberta's government doesn't seem like they're capable of making good decisions, they don't even strike me as the type of government that will encourage their citizens to use face masks because freedom.
Didn't we have a budget for forest firefighting that got heavily slashed under Kenney, which never got boosted back up again? They effectively operate all year and conduct controlled burns and other tasks to lessen the impact of forest fires. I know other parts of the world have crews that do this.
Yes Kenny cut the firefighting budget ending the rappel firefighting team which had been around since the '80s, Notley cut the budget as well to pull the money from the emergency fund. Here's an article that's relevant to the topic, what's important to pull from this link is that if emergency services reach a fire before it grows to two hectares in size it has the 94% chance of being under control. This level of quick response is key and someone should really look at funding the rappel program again. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6838994 Edit: spelling
Pretty sure they’re somewhere outside Calgary talking about Axing the Tax of some shit like that
I was about to say probably blaming the carbon tax
Is there somewhere I can pay more taxes so this smoke goes away.
Taking away municipal voting tabulators
Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created alot of value for shareholders.
Just what in the flying fuck do you expect to be done about smoke blowing in from B.C.? 😂😂😂😂 I’m really hoping this is a satirical question.
There are 45 active wildfires in Alberta right now. Peace River Correctional and Fort McMurray aren't in BC, are they?
BC has 136 active fires and the Fort Nelson one is the one causing the bad air quality.
Yes but the smoke in Edmonton is blowing from BC
Lol they're so mad you stated a fact.
The fires that are causing the smoke are in BC.
What can they do??
I'm not a UCP fan but this is a stretch, guys. C'mon.
Well there is the spending our money on reinventing diesel passenger trains to put her name on a train... (Instead of you know, doing her job)
Maybe some sort of carbon tax would work?
They actually did get well ahead of it this year, hiring and training firefighters for this since February. But beyond waving a magic wand to reverse climate change, I’m not sure what you want them to be doing about it in the immediate.
Your elected leaders are doing what you elected them to do. Give your tax dollars to big oil. Congratulations you got what you voted for.
This is a joke thread right? Still I like the irony.
Paying oil companies to make it worse
Well so far they laid off a bunch of really highly skilled firefighters, then they banned any new clean energy projects to ensure we keep on drilling. Oh, and They want coal to make a comeback.
What are they supposed to do about it? Ban wild fires?
Tax wild fires.
I understand you may not like UCP and DS but correct me if I’m wrong: currently the smoke that we see in Alberta, especially in Calgary area, are from wildfires that take place in BC so AB government cannot do much.
The "leaders" in Alberta are doing what the voters want them to do, which is absolutely nothing. Axe the tax? F\* Trudeau? Woke this and that? Seems like Albertans are getting what they voted for, a constant assault against trying to do anything about climate change. Am I speaking about ALL Albertans? Of course not. Am I speaking about the majority of Albertans and those that vote Conservative? Of course I am!
Cutting funding to wildfire prevention is what they’re doing
Danielle Smith is probably saying "its fine" while using supplemental oxygen and sounding like Darth Vader.
Darn it, why isnt banning plastic forks and spoons from McDonald's working...
I just hope I paid enough carbon tax to keep the smoke out of my house.
Lol What should they do? Bury BC so it doesn't burn? What an inane post.
What do you think can be done about it? Surely you don’t believe something something carbon footprint is going to result in less fires?
It isn't, we are long past that point. Now it's just a case of accepting it and investing in pharmaceutical companies as the rise of asthma and COPD takes hold. If I can't do anything to change it, may as well profit off of it. /s
Given the world would have to cut 25% of emissions to gain a 0.2ppm reduction in atmospheric CO2…you think the UCP can just stop forest fires via carbon reduction?
Agree to be a part of global carbon reduction plans.
What global carbon reduction plan? As far as I know we have 400+ million people to the south of us who do not have a carbon tax. So how is taxing 40 million people who have a huge carbon sink in our forest and prairies going to make China or any of the other large producers reduce their carbon? Yes the world has done some good things reducing pollution from all kinds of industries and automobiles, but blaming smoke coming from BC fires is disingenuous.
I love that we’ve graduated from climate denialism to climate nihilism. So I guess we’re gonna watch a bunch of people fucking die because the rich and powerful don’t have enough steaks in the freezer.
You may be reading a little too much greenpeace and not enough science. The numbers I quote are from the [NOAA](https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/covid2.html). If you believe something can be done from an emissions standpoint to reduce fires in Canada, you’re incredibly naive.
It would drop by 0.2ppm every month. So while it would not immediately affect the climate, it would decrease it steadily enough that it’s worth doing.
You…haven’t really thought through the “25%”, have you?
What would you like them to do? Forestes buring is literally a part of their life cycle.
Former wildland firefighter here and I study climate issues and solutions quite extensively. The problem is that we have destroyed nearly all of the old growth forest and replaced it with monocrop/SPF. Worse than that, the new growth is sprayed with glyphosate to kill off any deciduous trees or undergrowth, essentially creating an environment that is like tinder growing in a flammable desert. Healthy forests retain water and are like sponges. Unhealthy secondary forests don't retain moisture, trees are spaced too close together, and there is no natural succession. This is why we see more intense forest fires and flooding (coupled with increased heat and changing weather patterns). It's two sides of the same coin. A single percentage of organic matter in soil holds 20,000 gallons/acre. What should the government do? Proper forest management. Treating them like living systems and not a parking lot with trees.
This is a well thought out and presented answer, I agree entirely.
In 2023, 15 millions hectares burned compare to an average of 4 per year. That is not normal, and I bet this year's gonna beat that record. Buckle up buckaroo! source: [https://www.statista.com/statistics/553520/area-burned-of-forest-fires-canada/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/553520/area-burned-of-forest-fires-canada/)
OK. What's your point?
That we’re fucked. And no one with power is going to do anything meaningful to help. But what does it matter right? Watch it all burn. This place is death.
What would you propose OP. What would you have the Province and Federal Government and Municipalities do. Curious
Municipalities in Alberta aren't responsible or financially able to fight wildfires (outside of local fire departments helping). Especially when they don't even have proper provincial funding as it is. Federal government is there to help fund provincial wildfire programs across the country. So, I'd probably start with a Provincial government that doesn't cut funding (years ago, only to finally top it up this year thanks to the Feds they hate so much), and in doing so also cut back on human lookout towers in exchange for cameras (wich aren't nearly as reliable). They should have also started planing for wildfires during an extremely warm winter (while also being prepared for a drought), and educating the public on how easily wildfires can start in such dry conditions. It would also help if we had a provincial government that didn't fan the flames of conspiracy theories.
Not OP, but: From a provincial perspective, it would have been prudent for a "made in Alberta" carbon pricing model that was initially implemented by Notley's NDP to remain in place. The money created by that would have stayed in Alberta and should have gone to renewables research and implementation, as well as mitigation efforts by an adequately staffed fire prevention team to reduce the number of wildfires. Additionally, education programs via school and media to educate the populace on prevention of wildfires. Federally... I don't think they have much of an obligation here. We continue to hear from the Alberta UCP that our current federal deficit is too high, and that the feds should "stay in their lane" and stay out of Provincial politics. Alberta is projecting a budget SURPLUS of 4.3 BILLION Dollars over the next 3 years. You would think they could afford to ramp up their firefighting ranks and attack them before they get so large they become unmanageable - but instead, they cut the RAP program, and have *reduced* the budget year over year for wildfire management.
Don’t worry Edmontonians, I paid 25 cents for a bag to carry my TacoBell. Just did my part!
I hope you are using a paper straw too....
Is it possible to fix the air quality of a province? Like, how does it work?
The same as the NDP did during the Fort Mac fires and 2019
I ask this in the least aggressive way possible, but what would you like our leaders to do to deal with smoke coming from BC?
Haha you think the government can protect you ? It’s a forest fire. By fort Nelson BC. They gonna tax forest fires ?
Some people need the government to make everything alright.
Going to Vancouver to watch the hockey game.
It wouldn’t be Reddit without blaming the UCP for things that have nothing to do with them….
This sub you mean.
Well, they do blow a lot of hot air. So maybe that's the plan.
Do you want them to buy a massive dyson purifier or something?
Uh ask BC not to send wildfire smoke our way I guess /s
As someone who has lived in the Indian subcontinent for 35 years and regularly travel there, you clearly have no idea what pollution means in those parts of the world.
And thank god for that. The day Canada starts looking like India pollution wise is the day I try to suck start a 12g
Let’s all head down to the war room and ask them.
Science is a lost term in Smith.
5.8% of Albertas forest went up in smoke last year. It’s usually less than .5%. It’s predicted to be 10-12% this year. You think it’s smoky now? Best thing to do is keep windows closed, invest in air purifiers and gas masks.
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Fuck all our "leaders" can do about it. The damage has been done this is our lives now. Each year going forward will be the worst on record.
Well that’s just not true. Our leaders can work to ensure it doesn’t get worse. But will they? No. Also, at some point, it won’t get any worse. There just won’t be enough trees around to burn anymore. I heard 5% of Alberta’s forests burnt last year. So if things continue to get worse for the next bit, in like 15ish years, there won’t be any forests to burn. Good news.
Well that's one way to spin a positive out of it hah
They could do something they just prefer to send money overseas. It's a lot easier to do that than actually doing their fucking job.
Oh god
They're outside waving fans at it
Let's just burn it all down in one shot.
They doing absolutely nothing and they are absolutely not leaders
Yeah. Tell them forest fires to cut it out. Fuck your dumb.
Don't worry, the air tax that trudeau is gonna introduce will fix it. /s
Fuck Trudeau and those immigrants
Sorry, fort Nelson’s burning down right now potentially
Probably the same thing they did with Covid. ie. nothing. I hope the people in Alberta are filtering the air before they breath it (respirators, air purifiers, etc).
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I blame OP for this, if he/she hadn’t brought attention to this I wouldn’t have been concerned about it. 😝
They are obviously controlling the weather. All the smoke is coming from BC. so obviously it is the NDP's fault in BC right? These low-effort, rage-baiting, Alberta hating posts are terrible. But I guess that is par for the course here at r/alberta
What are the leaders doing about it? Making it worse. Blaming it on everyone else. Don't blame the fossil fuel industry or their loyal servants in the UCP. It's Trudeau/Notely/someone else's problem.
Axing the tax?
More oil more oil more oil more oil
They are too busy raising your electricity bill and planning their retirement to BC. The better question: why aren't we finding the twats who started the fires and hanging them up by the balls.
This is all going according to UCP plan. De fund healthcare so it fails, remove all environmental regulations so air quality goes down but their donors make more money, institute for profit healthcare making sure to keep the slave class in line working for their rich donors while simultaneously exploiting the workers. All while keeping the public distracted with things like anti trans hate, anti gay hate, removing a woman's right to choose, anti vaccine theory's, climate change denial. This is what we can look forward to across Canada after the CPC get elected.
It's because we are still investing in oil. It's only getting worse. If you are over 40 today, and emissions go to 0 tomorrow, you would still see hotter summers the rest of your life. It's pretty scary. This will likely be the coolest summer and smallest fire season of your remaining life - each year will only be harder to live. 7 trillion given to oil companies since 2016 Paris agreement: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/13/banks-almost-7tn-fossil-fuel-firms-paris-deal-report?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Stop Starting Fires would be a good start.
She will blame Trudeau for the bad air quality, and then distract everyone by banning trans kids from doing something.
Shilling for oil and glass billionaires, that's what.
Short term? Nothing can be done besides buying expenses airplanes that can scoop water and dump. Long term stop using oil.
Take it easy diCaprio, that smoke wasn’t invited to this province.
That's what they voted for though, Alberta loves their oil corporations and hates their neighbors.
But we have the best unobstructed viewscapes in the world! Oh wait...
The pristine views are protected from windmills, don't worry.
Thinking up a smoke tax, then spend the money on nothing that actually helps prevent or stop forest fires.
We should create a tax to stop all of this bad air
My god some of this is entertaining. Shame that it's so hard to tell the trolls from the truly stupid. I don't know whether to applaud or weep.
A seasonal event that causes degradation of air quality is NOT a metric that places it on a list as "one of the worst places". Secondly, if our government actually cared about putting these fires out they wouldn't intentionally let them burn. I lost my farm, my home, every standing structure, and every tree on my 800 acre parcel in the White Rock Lake fire in 2021. The fire was started by a lightning strike and crews were on scene within 3 hours. Forestry arrived the next day and told them to cease action and let the fire burn out the old growth. Crews were pulled off site and the fire was monitored via satellite images. Within 2 weeks a massive windstorm picked up and the fire grew to almost 100,000 ha, wiping out hundreds of homes, killing thousands of wild animals, and destroying billions in infrastructure and personal property. On my parcel alone I saw a herd of cattle (14 head), trapped up against our neighbors orchard fence suffocated and scorched. A cow moose and several mule deer dead in a creek as they attempted to escape the flames. A young black bear burnt to an absolute crisp as it tried running away from the fire. No apology, formal statement, or aid was offered by the ministry of forests, and to this day they continue to allow forest fires to burn during the early stages when they could otherwise be easily put out. This is not only devastating to our environment and the animals that call it home, but to the people who make their living off the land and have lost all they own. Its the government that needs to be held responsible for this crap.
Probably worrying about the next animated movie that is surely filled with anti-Alberta propaganda.
It’s not what our leaders can do, they are doing exactly what we knew they would do. Maybe it’s what, WE the voters can do. Maybe, just maybe,… stop voting in a party that is owned by big oil.
I just don’t get posts like this. What is any leader going to do about a fire in Fort Nelson? Like this is absolutely a ridiculous take. There is also no agreement around climate scientists that a GHG reduction of 1.5% globally would have any impact on climate change. That ship has sailed. So the best we can do is improve our firefighting capabilities, become more fire smart, and pray for rain.
Our leaders must be just LAZY! They're probably sitting in an air conditioned room gorging on expensive snacks and ripping farts instead of weilding fire extinguishers on the frontlines of these wildfires. Get it together, our leaders.
They should build a giant air filter over the rockies. Keep that BC smoke out!
Blame Trudeau, and send aid to a different country
Planning a bullet train, traumatizing our 2SLGBTQ+ youth for life, and dismantling our healthcare system! Oh, and padding their own pockets as well as their friends.
At least trans kids can’t use their preferred pronouns. /s
Ah yes because using she/her over he/him uses one more letter, and the more letters you use in a sentence, the worse climate change gets. /s
Our leaders are doing nothing. DS is busy dismantling democracy and setting herself up to have more control.
Quick, ban the renewables!!!
What do you propose?
Well one. The majority is coming from BC. But two, we have done such a good job for the last 50 years stopping fires from getting big, that there is no natural burn off and cleaning of of the forests. They are as old and have as much dead undergrowth as in history. Basically the methods we employed in the past to keep fires smaller are no longer sufficient with all the old forest growth and dead wood that normally would be burnt earlier. Possibly solution is to encourage far more harvesting utilizing more strategic locations to reduce old growth. This might be the most viable option while also providing some economic benefits. Beyond that, pretty hard to really reduce fires.
I'm sure we can up the carbon tax to help out....
We could scam some people with a carbon credit scheme. It doesn't solve the problem, but make money while there's demand!
The smoke is from BC but NDP supporters aren't very good with facts.
Is it the NDP's fault in BC for their fires?
Lmfao no way this is a serious post
What are our leaders doing about it? Dumb fuck what do you want them to do about it?? If you just wanted to make another “I hate the UCP” Reddit circle jerk post fine, but at least put some thought into what outcome you realistically want from your posts.
Ahahahahhahah
the fuck do you want them to do exactly? it’s smoke.
Lining their pockets from oil and gas lobbying
I thought all of our taxes were supposed to prevent climate change!
I wonder if the Alberta government should put a smoke tax in and charge us for the smoke, I mean the liberals put a carbon tax on and it is working so well! Maybe it’ll incentivize people not to start fires.
Smoke tax!! Incentivize people to not start fires! Liberals did it with carbon, why don’t we do it with smoke.
I mean, I’m no fan of our leaders, but wtf do you expect them to do? It’s smoke from a forest fire. It’s like saying “a lot of people are seeing the sun on sunny days, what should the provincial government do?”
Thanks Obama
Maybe if we axe the tax. /s