Wildfire Damage Could Quadruple in Canada by 2100

In 2016, a wildfire devastated Fort McMurray in Alberta. In 2017, wildfires set records in British Columbia. In 2018, wildfires burned British Columbia in May.

Since the 1970s, the average area burned in Canada each year has almost doubled, according to an article by Ainslie Cruickshank and Jesse Winter. According to Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta, the amount of land that burns every year in Canada could double or even quadruple by the end of the century.

Human-caused climate change is exacerbating the damage, according to Flannigan, by slowing the jet stream and allowing more high pressure zones that create the conditions for catastrophic fires.