This Is Canada's Worst Fire Season In Modern History. It's Not New

Short Wave

NPR

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🗓️ 12 July 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Canada is having its worst fire season in modern history. The fires have burnt more than 20 million acres, casting hazardous smoke over parts of the U.S. and stretching Canadian firefighting resources thin. Public officials and many news headlines have declared the fires as "unprecedented," and in the modern-sense they are. But NPR climate correspondent Nate Rott has been talking to researchers who focus on the history of wildfire in Canada's boreal forests and they say the situation is not without precedent.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:04.8	Hey there, Shortwaveers!
0:07.0	Today we're traveling to the source of the smoke that's been affecting tens of millions
0:11.2	of Americans this summer, including me here in DC.
0:14.4	We're going to Canada.
0:18.6	The Eastern Canadian province of Quebec to be more specific, Regina?
0:22.2	Nate Rod, hey, you were there recently to cover some of the massive wildfires burning
0:27.3	there, right?
0:28.3	Yeah, that's right.
0:29.3	The planes that you're hearing in the background are actually firefighting airplanes called scoopers
0:34.3	that were taken off from an airfield in the town of Valdoire.
0:38.0	Regina, can you guess why they are called scoopers?
0:41.1	I'm going to take a wild guess and that they're scooping water from nearby water sources
0:46.4	and like dumping that water on the fires.
0:48.4	Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!
0:50.2	Yeah, I'm the best.
0:51.4	Yeah, you got it.
0:52.4	No, yeah.
0:53.4	So they are planes that fly really low and literally scoop up water from lakes or rivers
0:57.5	and then dump them on wildfires, like the ones that are burning in Canada in these super
1:02.5	remote parts of the country.
1:04.6	Super remote.
	...

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