N.S. government must help communities prepare for more wildfires: climate experts
CTV
Climate and forestry researchers say Nova Scotia must act swiftly to prepare for future wildfires in the province's increasingly vulnerable forests.
Climate and forestry researchers say Nova Scotia must act swiftly to prepare for future wildfires in the province's increasingly vulnerable forests.
“This new extreme weather is going to be our new normal," Alana Westwood, assistant professor of environmental studies at Dalhousie University, said in a recent interview.
"So the first thing is to immediately revamp municipal and regional planning to not just consider the risk of fires, but to expect the occurrence of fires."
Andrew MacDougall, a professor at St. Francis Xavier University who contributed to the most recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — or IPCC — report, said that when wildfire records are broken — as occurred this year in southern Nova Scotia — it's probable that global warming is a factor and that the trend will continue.
MacDougall noted a study assessing the direct role of climate change in creating extreme conditions hasn't been completed on the recent Nova Scotia wildfires, nor is he aware of one being underway.
However, MacDougall said it's "likely there's a climate change effect" regarding the largest wildfire in the province's history — in Shelburne County — and in the fires northwest of Halifax. Together the two fires destroyed about 210 residences and created mass evacuations.
"Even once the carbon emissions go to zero, we're stuck with the climate change that we've already created," he said. "So now that we had these bad wildfires, we just kind of have to assume that this is going to be part of our future."
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