Residents in communities across Canada have been forced to evacuate due to an extraordinary outbreak of forest fires that has already scorched over ten times the acreage of land burned at this time last year. Approximately 400 fires are currently burning in Canada, with over one-third of them in the province of Quebec, whose residents have little experience evacuating from such blazes. Climate change, drought, and heat are believed to be linked to the intensity and size of the fires, which are burning in forests in all of Canada’s provinces, except for the province of Prince Edward Island and Nunavut, a northern territory where trees cannot survive due to the extremely low temperatures. A lack of moisture in the air and increasing temperatures caused by global warming are making trees drier, according to a professor of physical and environmental sciences at the University of Toronto. Climate change is also evident in Chibougamau, a city in Quebec that has been subject to global warming’s effects, such as shorter skating seasons and golf seasons that are beginning a month earlier or more. Veterans of the city are reflecting that each year, they experience progressively worse consequences of global warming.
