According to the Legault government, Quebec is “facing an unprecedented situation” with regard to forest fires.
We cannot approach this subject without saluting, first of all, the courage of all those who participate in the fight to fight the fires.
We cannot approach it either without showing solidarity with the communities that are hit by these fires. In Quebec, as elsewhere in the country.
Finally, we must agree on the fact that if what is happening in Quebec is unprecedented – for about a hundred years, at the very least – that does not mean that this type of catastrophic situation is unpredictable.
And that does not mean, either, that the situation is exceptional.
On the contrary.
Fires so intense over such a vast territory (this is what the Minister of Natural Resources, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, meant by “situation never seen”), in the current context, it is likely to happen again.
The risk of wildfires and their potential intensity have already increased on the planet due to climate change. And the worrying trend will continue.
Possibly over a longer period each year, as the fire season could start earlier, alongside more intense droughts.
As seen here this spring.
Neither Quebec nor Canada are of course immune to this phenomenon – we still remember the devastating fire in Fort McMurray in 2016, not to mention that forests in the west of the country have already been devastated this year.
But both Quebec and Canada can take action to mitigate the impact of climate change on our forests.
This is not to be alarmist. It’s just being logical and foresighted.
In the first public, strategic and national assessment of disaster risk in Canada, just released by Ottawa, it is reported that the area of land destroyed each year in the country by forest fires is expected to double by the end of end of the century.
It is therefore predicted that there will be more people and infrastructure “at risk”.
Usefully, emphasis is also placed on what has not yet been done to better adapt to this foreseeable evolution.
This National Risk Profile refers to:
- Low public awareness and little preventive action to protect homes, property and neighborhoods.
- Gaps in scientific knowledge and in forest fire management tools and technologies.
- The integration of indigenous peoples and various indigenous knowledge in the management and response to forest fires.
- Structural resilience to forest fires, especially in high risk areas.
It’s not that we haven’t done anything yet, it’s that we’re not moving fast enough. Yet, not implementing a multi-pronged strategy on the ground to better adapt is like fighting with one hand behind your back against increasingly dreadful fires.
“I think the solution is to change the paradigm, to stop thinking that we are going to stop them all [les incendies] rather to prevent the impacts they will have on communities and infrastructures,” explained Yves Bergeron, a professor who is a researcher at the Forest Research Institute of the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
Concrete examples of actions we could take to achieve this? It ranges from getting an early fire remote sensing system to changing our reforestation goals to plant more jack pine, for example, “much more fire-friendly than black spruce”.
And that also means rethinking the presence of homes near risk areas, of course.
But if adaptation is essential, it also has its limits.
These actions will not be enough if we do not take others to decarbonize our economy more quickly. So far, our efforts are insufficient. With each passing year, the situation becomes more overwhelming.
These great fires have not finished their ravages, alas. But they are already part of those evils that force us to put forward great remedies.