Air quality plummets in parts of the U.S. again due to wildfire smoke from Canada
PBS NewsHourMAR 17 2023
The Spin
Narrative A
Climate change is wreaking havoc in Canada. Wildfires are becoming more intense and even speeding up global warming, creating a dangerous feedback loop. This year's fires have already broken all the records, releasing more than 600M tons of carbon dioxide since May — more than half of Canada's yearly emissions. This is a dangerous aspect of our current climate crisis.
Narrative B
While climate change is likely a factor in these wildfires, the best way to deal with this is to design preventative measures to shrink their scope as much as possible. One potential solution is to turn dead trees into biomass energy before they ignite. Governments should invest in turning these trees into wood chips, which, besides preventing future fires, can also be burned and used to produce heat and electricity. Better forest management can go a long way in mitigating the worst of these fires.