Critics are blaming environmental extremism that prevented proper management of forest land in Canada for massive wildfires that are sending huge amounts of smoke across New York City and down the eastern U.S. coastline into D.C.
More than a dozen states in the U.S. have experienced the impact of wildfires, leading to air quality alerts being issued in areas where over 100 million people reside. Concerns have been raised, suggesting that inhaling the smoke in New York City for a 24-hour period is comparable to smoking 22 cigarettes. The haze caused by the wildfires even led to the postponement of Tuesday’s Major League Baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox, as it hung over The Bronx, the Daily Wire reported.
Check out this almost unbelievable time-lapse of wildfire smoke consuming the World Trade Center and the New York City skyline.
Those vulnerable to poor air quality, including seniors and young children, should limit time outdoors if possible.
More: https://t.co/ChRuWv7X6E pic.twitter.com/mtKtLun8lN
— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) June 7, 2023
BREAKING: Philadelphia now has the worst air quality in any major city in the world as smoke from wildfires in Canada is moving through the region. https://t.co/cjEL3Q5WXR
— CBS Philadelphia (@CBSPhiladelphia) June 8, 2023
Canada is currently grappling with the devastating effects of over 400 wildfires. Critics are saying that the fires are a result of flawed forest management practices influenced by misguided environmentalism.
“The situation in Canada is similar to that in Australia, where green ideology and chronic government underfunding mean that the forests currently ablaze have not been managed properly for years,” Miranda Devine noted in The New York Post. “Instead of dead wood and undergrowth being removed regularly using low-intensity controlled or ‘prescribed’ burns, forests have become overgrown tinderboxes.”
“High-intensity wildfires can be mitigated with PROACTIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT. People need to ask, are policies inhibiting this in Canada? What measures are in effect? “ Gabriella Hoffman of Townhall tweeted.
Jim Steele, an ecologist who served as director of San Francisco State University’s Sierra Nevada field campus, said the fires should not be attributed to ‘climate change.’
“I do not feel the media is educating us about the science that affects fires,” he said. “They’re just trying to push a catastrophe narrative that’s been going on way too long.”
“Canada’s forests have not been in a natural state for a long time. Fire suppression has led to forests full of deadfall, which is basically kindling,” the editorial board for The Globe and Mail warned in July 2021. “Widespread wildfires have become too common, as a result of decades of decisions around fire suppression, logging and replanting, made worse by the punch of climate heating. Forest fires cannot be prevented. But tools are available to mitigate and contain the damage.”
In 2016, Mark Heathcott, who was responsible for setting up controlled burns for Parks Canada for 23 years, warned, “A lot of lip service is paid to it but very few agencies do it. People don’t understand the benefit of fire.”
