Every summer, wildfires sweep across Canada’s boreal forest. In 2023 alone, a record 6,000 fires torched 15 million hectares of land.
Increasingly, wildfire season brings increased smoke, fire bans, and biodiversity loss.
Along with the smoke comes a growing amount of hazy misinformation.
As record-breaking fires swept across Canada in 2023, True North, a politically right-leaning online news and opinion publication, claimed that climate change had nothing to do with the blazes. True North criticized the federal Liberal government, wildfire coverage in the news media and public discourse about climate change responsibility.
True North charged that the “Trudeau government is once again jumping at the opportunity to use a tragedy to advance their political agenda” on climate change.
Breaking down True North’s claim
True North questioned the link between forest fires and climate change.
“Even though provincial governments have not concluded why these wildfires were started,” said True North reporter Harrison Faulkner, “the federal government, along with the activist legacy media, already know the culprit–it’s the invisible gods of climate change, of course. The reality is climate change has nothing to do with it.”
Faulkner criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, and Green Party leader Elizabeth May for their calls to action on climate change.
“In reality, what they’re doing is advancing their political agenda of high taxation, natural resources destruction and ultimate and total control over the people during a serious crisis,” Faulkner said.
The True North journalist also explained that climate change can’t contribute to wildfires because wildfires across Canada have decreased since 1990.
The facts about Canadian wildfires
The Canadian Journal of Forest Research explains that wildfire season has extended throughout the years, and in Western Canada in particular, wildfires have, in fact, increased.
In 2023, burnt areas were six times more than the historical average, with a record-setting year and a “fiery wake-up call,” according to Natural Resources Canada’s scientific analysis.
There is no denying that some wildfires are solely human-caused. Whether it’s through ignorance or arson, humans can be the possible spark for wildfires.
But are they the only cause of wildfires, as True North claimed?
According to the Canadian Climate Institute, in 2023, human ignition only caused about seven percent of the wildfires across Canada. The other 93 percent were attributed to lightning strikes.
The scientific consensus
Scientific evidence increasingly links the increase in fires to climate change.
When long-term weather patterns start to shift, climate change occurs. However, the world has been warming much faster due to an exponential increase in fossil fuel emissions and consumption. This type of climate change is called “global warming.”
Wildfires are becoming more intense, releasing more carbon into the air. In 2023, Canada released 647 megatonnes of carbon, exceeding seven of the ten largest national emitters in 2022.
When we burn fossil fuels, we release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. NASA explains that the rapid warming of our planet makes extreme weather worse. These extreme weather events can include heat waves, lightning strikes and wildfires.
Scientific research shows climate change is warming our weather and causing more extreme weather, including more frequent and intense wildfires.
“There’s no question, extreme weather, record high temperatures and dry conditions caused by climate change intensified this year’s wildfire crisis,” said Canadian Forest Services scientist Jonathan Boucher.
“Climate change is greatly increasing the flammability of the fuel available for wildfires because the trees, fallen trees, and underbrush are all so dry,” explains Yan. “This means that a single spark, regardless of its source, can rapidly turn into a blazing inferno,” said Yan Boulanger, a research scientist in forest ecology with Natural Resources Canada.
Climate change fuelling wildfires
Susan Reid, an earth and environmental sciences professor at Mount Royal University (MRU), says that most people don’t understand the entire situation regarding wildfires and climate change.
“My first thought is that there’s a disconnect between cause [and effect] and what it has an influence on. And with that disconnect, how do you think that misinformation and disconnect spreads between the two subjects?” Reid wondered in an interview with the Calgary Journal.
“People rely on a lot of different things for their information, and maybe people don’t necessarily rely on the most reliable sources of information, or they will just tend to always, you know, visit the same sources for their information rather than having a broader view,” added Reid.
The MRU professor says it is essential to understand this disconnect because it is crucial to understand the real causes of wildfires versus what could exacerbate them.
Humans can cause fires, but Reid says climate change worsens fires sparked by accident or arson.
“If there are regions that are becoming drier because of our changing climate than they were before, they’ll be more susceptible to those lightning strikes or to those human error type of activities…We might want to think a little bit about just changing weather patterns in general as well,” Reid said.
The verdict on True North’s claims
As climate change increases and produces drier and hotter conditions, experts predict that Canadians face a higher risk of wildfires with longer durations and greater intensity.
True North’s claim is misleading because it ignores the scientific evidence linking forest fires to climate change.
The Calgary Journal contacted True North twice to request a comment on this fact-checking story but did not receive a response.
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