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FOREST FIRES AND FLOODING IN CANADA 2023

SIMO JELAČA, Ph.D.

Geographic data

Canada is the second largest country in the world, with an area of 9,984,670 km2. The distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Cape Spear (Cape Spear, New Fondled and Labrador) to the border of Yukon with Alaska (Yukon and Alaska border) is 5,514 km, and from the southernmost point to the northernmost point is 4,634 km. There are 224,466 km2 of national parks. Canada has over two million lakes, more than the rest of the world, and 31,752 are larger than 3 km2. The largest Canadian lake is Great Bear Lake, 31,328 km2, and the deepest is Great Slave Lake, 614 m deep, with a surface area of 28,568 km2. Canada has 52,455 islands, the largest island being Baffin Island, Nunavut, 507,451 km2. The area of Fresh waters is 891,163 km2. The highest mountain peak is Elias Mountains 5,959 m. Land borders are 8,890 km long, and sea, coastal borders are 243,042 km long.

Forest fires

In the vast expanses of Canada, there are also huge forest areas. And it is well known that for every living person, at least ten trees are needed to produce oxygen. Canada now has a little over 40 million inhabitants, and there are also a lot of animals, which also need oxygen for biological survival.

Forest fires occur in Canada every year, although in previous decades and years they were largely under human control. Last year, 2023, was extremely unfavorable, due to climate changes, which caused enormous damage to us due to numerous forest fires across the country. In British Columbia alone, 2.84 million hectares of forest burned, even more in Alberta, and in Canada as a whole, 18.5 million hectares of forest areas burned. The greatest number of fires were caused by lightning, although there are other factors as the cause of fires, and there are also human, malicious ones. During the forest fires, a large population was forcibly evicted, and many people's houses burned down. Most emigration was in the northern regions of Canada. The population of Yellowknife, for example, was evicted twice in 2023. One data indicates that there were 236 evictions. The following numbers of people were evicted by province: In Alberta 29,000, in British Columbia 30,000, in Manitoba 7,000, in the Northwest Territories 3,000, in Nova Scotia 16,000, in Quebec 14,000, in Saskatchewan about 1,000, about 535 inhabitants were evicted a second time. About 5,000 foreign firefighters came to Canada's aid. Forest fires started as early as March, and some are still going on and have not been extinguished even by winter.

There were a total of 6,551 of them. Even in October 2023, 772 fires were burning, of which 246 were beyond human control. There were forest fires in all 13 provinces and territories of Canada. Material damages are enormous and insurance institutions bear the vast majority of the costs. 184,961 km2 of forest area burned, which is about 5% of the total forest area of Canada, which is too much.

Forest fires have also changed the air quality. The smoke of these fires spread over the entire surface of Canada, there were days when people in Ottawa, Toronto and other cities walked exclusively with masks on their faces. The smoke from the Canadian forests spread even across the Atlantic and largely covered Europe. The year 2023 was recorded as drier and warmer, and it is to be expected that the following ones will be the same or even worse. A disturbed climate brings us only bad things.

There are data indicating that 85% of burned forest areas were caused by lightning, and there are even indications that some fires were caused by discarded cigarettes. Unfortunately, there is also such a population, smokers, who are so careless that with their carelessness or maliciousness they cause human harm and even human lives. True, some fires are caused by sparks from railroad locomotives, but there is a man with diminished ability to keep it under control until all locomotives are electric. Some were so large and covered such large areas, that they were formally beyond possible human control.

One data indicates that forest fires in Canada during the year 2023 created about 327-355 megatons of carbon dioxide, which additionally went into the atmosphere and additionally polluted it. If the specific gravity of carbon dioxide is taken into account, it follows that at least 355,000,000,000 kg was released into the atmosphere, which is too much for human comprehension. Provinces and territories are still sorting through their wildfire and damage data.

There were even conspiracies that some fires were started by drones. In fires, conifers burn easily, and where they are completely destroyed, the recovery of forests takes 50 to 150 years. Some forests become completely non-renewable. Some fires are still going on, even though winter has passed, so not even the snow has not stopped them.

Records on the Internet show that 86 firefighters died as a result of all the forest fires, and that four of them were directly burned in the fire. There is no exact information about the animals that died, but it is mentioned that hundreds of thousands of them died, and that many of them changed their habitats. Among the numerous animals, fish, birds, and even those birds that have migrated are also mentioned. In total, the disappearance and suffering of about 700 animal species is mentioned.

The complete data have not yet been compiled, and even those that have been presented are sufficient to assess the damage caused and to assess the possibilities for prevention in the future, which can be expected with certainty that there will certainly be some.

River floods

Weather disasters during 2023 caused material damages in Canada worth about 3.1 trillion dollars. About one and a half million Canadians were affected by the floods. Statistical weather disasters, primarily floods, are displayed by region and by time. Most of the floods happened and happen every year in the eastern provinces. More snow falls in those parts of the country, so when the snow melts, the rivers suddenly overflow and turn the surrounding area flooded. In flooded areas, many houses are damaged, as well as flooded land. Huge material damages occur.

Experts know that all riverbeds should be cleaned at least once a century. All rivers in their courses deposit silt, branches, various wastes and the like, the riverbeds become shallower over the years and the rivers begin to overflow. Therefore, it is recommended that the rivers be cleaned, and the surrounding embankments are made from the extracted sand and silt, which are then fortified. I wrote about it to the mayors of almost all major cities in Canada and recommended to them that we can go to Novi Sad together to see how we did it in 1963, in which actions I personally participated as a student and volunteer. Unfortunately, I only got a response from two mayors (from Ottawa and Calgary) that they received the messages and that's all. And the material damages from river floods in Canada, every year, are huge. This is especially known for Winnipeg, where the Red River floods almost every year and causes damages worth about or over two billion dollars.

The numerous data presented above about forest fires and floods in Canada, during the year 2023, were taken from the Internet and the author believes that they are accurate. At the same time, I thank everyone who showed them, and I am many times grateful to all the firefighters and all participants in the defense ranks for Canada.

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