Hello and welcome to Eco Report. Today's anchors are Julianna Dailey and Cynthia Roberts-Hall. Later in today's program, Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze attended the second public meeting for the Allen Street Greenway connector which will link Madison and Morton Streets in the McDoel Gardens neighborhood. We will have an excerpt from the event held yesterday by Hank Duncan, the City's Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. And now for your environmental reports: An Update on the Status of the Canadian Wildfires

Photo courtesy of Reuters.

This story updates the status of the Canadian fires. Canadian wildfires have released 290 megatonnes of carbon emissions from January to July 2023, more than doubling the previous annual high of 138 megatonnes of carbon emissions in 2014, according to Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service. The emissions for this year are set to keep rising as fires continue to blaze, with fire season typically spanning from May to October.

Canada’s wildfire emissions this year make up about 25% of global total emissions from wildfires, Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service reported. Major wildfires are currently burning across the country.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, there are 1,052 wildfires burning in Canada, with 666 of these fires considered “out of control” burns. The fires are particularly affecting British Columbia and Northwest Territories, and most of Canada’s territories have been impacted by wildfires since May. Wildfires are also affecting the Arctic Circle, the service reported.

"We have been monitoring the emissions from wildfires right across Canada for three months since the beginning of May, during which time they have continued to increase almost continuously to a level which is already considerably higher than the previous annual total fire emissions for Canada in our dataset," said Mark Parrington, senior scientist with the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, said in a statement. As fire emissions from boreal regions typically peak at the end of July and early August, the total is still likely to continue rising for some more weeks and we will continue to monitor.

The wildfires in Canada have contributed to poor air quality around the country and in the U.S. for months, and by the end of June, emissions for the first six months of the year had already surpassed the record high, reaching 160 megatonnes. The 2023 fire season has also hit a record high for the amount of area burned, with over 32 million acres burned, Reuters reported. At the usual estimate, 32 million acres reflects nearly 13 billion trees.

Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service noted that climate change was contributing to conditions that raise the chances of longer fire seasons, and rapidly increasing surface air temperatures in the Arctic could also be playing a part in the record-breaking fires.

One thing that is overlooked is that nearly all of Canada’s forests are now warm enough to be targeted by beetles. Between fire and beetles, the future of Canadian forests is not bright.

One thing that is often overlooked by mainstream media is that nearly all of Canada forests are now warm enough to be targeted by beetles.

---Norm Holy Reasons for the Fires in Hawaii

Photo courtesy of the NY Times.

The New York Times reports on the reasons for the fires in Hawaii. The fires in Hawaii are shocking to all of us. Its happened in a state defined by its lush vegetation, a far cry from the dry landscape normally associated with fire threats.

The explanation is as straightforward as it is sobering: As the planet heats up, no place is protected from disasters.

The story of this week’s blaze arguably began decades ago, when Hawaii started experiencing a long-term decline in average annual rainfall. Since 1990, rainfall at selected monitoring sites has been 31 percent lower in the wet season, and 6 percent lower in the dry season,