The Canadian wildfires that polluted U.S. skies this summer and drew President Donald Trump’s ire were caused by climatic conditions, researchers said Wednesday, rebutting Trump’s criticism of Canadian forest management.
A research group that investigates links between global warming and extreme weather blamed increasingly hot, dry conditions for drying out Canadian forests, making fires easier to ignite and spread.
The conditions “are being heightened with climate change, which are driven by the burning of fossil fuels, which most societies are the cause for,” Canadian Forest Service researcher Jonathan Boucher said. “I don’t think we should blame Canadians for that.” Boucher was part of the World Weather Attribution team that did the study.
Trump on Sunday revived a threat to punish Canada for a wildfire outbreak that last month sent billows of hazardous smoke into the U.S, telling reporters that he’d thought of a penalty for Canada, which he did not describe. Trump has repeatedly blamed Canada for the wildfires and smoke across much of the northern U.S., suggesting Canadian officials caused the blazes by mismanaging their forests.
