Good morning, it’s Ann Hui here, filling in for Danielle Groen. All eyes are on Jasper, the picturesque town in the Canadian Rockies currently under threat of wildfire. Some 10,000 people have already been forced to evacuate from the town, with up to 15,000 leaving Jasper National Park. More on the wildfires below.
Today’s headlines
- Kamala Harris held her first rally in Wisconsin since stepping in as the likely Democratic nominee, promising ‘freedom and compassion’ over ‘chaos and fear’
- Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address U.S. Congress in Washington today, ahead of meetings with Donald Trump and U.S. president Joe Biden this week
- The Canadian women’s senior soccer team has dismissed two staffers after two incidents of spying on the practices of the New Zealand women’s team via drone, with head coach Bev Priestman also removing herself from Thursday’s first match.
A water bomber flies low over just outside of Hinton, Alta yesterday.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
Wildfires
‘Burned more in the last eight years than in the previous six or seven decades’
Firefighters and emergency officials descended on Jasper National Park, working to bring up to 15,000 people to safety. The wildfires also threatened nearby oil sands sites, prompting the evacuation of oil workers.
By now, wildfires have become a common occurrence in Western Canada. Researchers have even demonstrated that smoke inhalation from the fires is now responsible for about the same number of premature deaths as pollution.
So how does this year’s wildfire season compare? We asked Lori Daniels, a forest ecology professor at the University of British Columbia, to put this summer’s fires into context:
What’s causing the current situation?
In the northeast of B.C. and in northern Alberta, we’ve been in drought conditions for multiple years. We’ve also been under this high-pressure heat dome, and again, the heat domes are proving to be a catalyst for fires. We’re seeing that all across western North America right now.
How does this year’s wildfires compare with previous years?
Last year was a record-breaking fire season in Canada. We’ve not burned as many hectares as we did nationally last year. [At this time last year, 10.8 million hectares had burned; so far this year, we’re at 2.1 million.]
But in B.C., we’ve already burned over 600,000 hectares. Prior to 2017, the last time we’d burned more than 600,000 was in the 1950s. We’ve since surpassed that for five out of the last eight years. We’ve burned more in the last eight years than we did in the previous six or seven decades.
And fire season is just ramping up in the southern part of the province. It’s carrying over fires from 2023 – the holdover fires, and the zombie fires.
Sorry, zombie fires?
The fire can literally go underground in the boggy soils, the muskeg and peat soils. It’s organic material, so it can continue to burn even through the snow and the winter. And in the spring, when the forest and soil dries out, the heat of the fire comes back up to the surface. It pops alive.
So are we in for another catastrophic wildfire season?
In northeast B.C., we just had a little bit of rain for the first few weeks. The heat dome is breaking down right now. So that’s a good sign.
But for the southern parts of the province, in eastern Alberta, and across the prairie provinces, we’re still seeing a lot of areas in extreme fire danger. We’re looking for relief from the rain, and asking people to be vigilant.
The Shot
Paris gets ready for its close-up
Swimmer Javier Acevedo rides around the Olympic village.Siegfried Modola/The Globe and Mail
Canadian athletes have descended on Paris – spending Tuesday exercising outside, jogging, doing gymnastics and holding team meetings. Globe and Mail photographer Siegfried Modola documented the team getting ready for the first “normal” Summer Games since 2016. See more of his images here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
The aftermath: The director of the U.S. Secret Service resigned Tuesday, after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, calling it “the most significant operational failure” for the service in decades.
‘Serendipitous encounters:’ Would you want to have dinner with strangers? That’s what’s on the menu with Timeleft, a new app that groups strangers together over a shared meal.
Abroad: Authorities in New Zealand are cracking down on a toxic food additive at the centre of the case against Canadian Kenneth Law, after four recent suicides there were linked to the Mississauga man accused of killing 14 people in Ontario.
All the fixings: All across Vancouver, “repair” cafes have popped up, where volunteers – such as retired tradespeople and student engineers – help others fix their stuff.