2023-07-01 15:31:39
The raging forest fires have been going on for weeks in Canada, whose toxic fumes have spread across the North American continent, all the way to the European Atlantic coast.
120 million Americans suffer
The American neighbor is the most affected following Canada, as the smoke from the Canadian forest fires continues its path south, into the American Midwest and East Coast. About 120 million people currently suffer from air pollution, according to local authorities confirmed on Friday. Canadian officials warned, on Wednesday, that the fires will release more smoke-laden air that is getting worse, amid warnings that fires will continue throughout the summer, and their negative effects will extend to other regions of the world. The smoke from these wildfires created hazy, polluted skies over large swathes of Canada and the United States, especially in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Missouri. Warnings were issued in the middle of this week in Minnesota, Michigan, and North Carolina in southeastern America, the latest related to bad air quality in most parts of the Great Lakes region and the mid-Atlantic regions. According to Canadian authorities, this is the country’s worst wildfire season on record, and air quality is expected to remain a concern during the summer as long as the fires continue. According to firefighting and environmental officials, it started earlier on drier land than usual, and accelerated very quickly, exhausting firefighting resources across Canada.
Europe is not spared
At the same time, the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the arrival of smoke from forest fires in northern Quebec to Western Europe, following it had reached Scandinavia a few days ago. NASA said that satellite images this week “showed smoke extending across the North Atlantic Ocean to the Iberian Peninsula, France, and other areas of western Europe.”
“fires everywhere”
There are 490 burning fires across Canada, including 255 out of control, as fires are burning in almost every Canadian province. A record 80,000 square kilometers burned, according to Canadian authorities.
What do experts say?
Experts attribute the difficulty of controlling these fires, despite the long time since their outbreak, to the large area of Canada with its dense forests, which explains, according to them, the failure of the authorities to control a large part of them, due to their spread throughout the country, in addition to the warming factor and the drought that results from it.
Ayman Qaddouri, a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, told Sky News Arabia:
“The continuation of fires in Canada for the second month in a row, and the spread of flames spreading from the Canadian west to the east of the country, is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of Canada.” “High temperatures and successive heat waves, which have been increasing for 4 years, have brought catastrophic results in the form of these forest fires.” “In 2019, Canada recorded a temperature increase of 1.7 degrees Celsius compared to 1948, and the temperature continued to rise in the following years, bringing warming today to its peak in the west and north of the country.”
What is the reason for the persistence of these fires?
The matter is primarily due to the lack of readiness of the specialized devices in fighting forest fires, and the lack of human capabilities in them. Due to the large area of Canada and the spread of fires between the west and east of the country, and some southern parts, it is difficult for the firefighting teams to move and control the flames, which led to their continuation, which is expected to expand further in the coming days. The impact of these fires does not only affect Canada, but the smoke from the fires moved south to the United States and across continents, reaching Norway and several European countries, which means that the danger will expand to other countries and continents.
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