Dylan McEwan

SPCH 1311 MonWed 1-2:30pm

Wildfires in British Columbia
I.

II.

Introduction
a. Attention Getter
i. Summer wildfires have burnt hundreds of thousands of square
miles forcing evacuations in the U.S. and Canada.
ii. At one point, over 180,000 square miles of British Columbia was
covered by smoke from these fires. That is over half the
province.
iii. They have lost more homes in 2015 than they ever have since
2003. This is all happening in the words hottest year ever.
iv. Blazing summers and awkwardly mild winters. So much so that
the summer heat goes so far to be record breaking.
b. Thesis
i. I am going to talk about whether global warming is playing a
part in this tragic year of wild fires and what the province and
country is doing about it, and what the problem even is in the
first place.
c. Content
i. Even though there are parts of the U.S. and other provinces in
Canada that are affected by these wildfires, I will be going over
specifically British Columbia since they practically have it the
worst.
d. Transition
i. Is global warming the only problem though? There is another
factor that has not really been in the spotlight and a lot of
people dont realize it can also be a lead contributor to these
wildfires.
ii. Putting these fires out could be a hefty contribution.
Body
a. Global warming or Climate change can be one of the reasons these
fires are coming up more often.
i. The correlation between the rise in temperature and the
prevalent fires are far too real to dismiss.
ii. Being so close to British Columbia, the fact that the U.S.
consumes nearly 80% of fossil fuels on an annual basis is
alarming knowing that the consumption of fossil fuels directly
impacts Climate change.
iii. Since carbon dioxide emission correlates to climate change, it
makes sense that while we are experiencing the highest global
temperatures we are also emitting the largest amount of carbon
dioxide ever .
iv. It is speculated that within our lifetime, we may see the sea
level rise an entire 3 feet due to climate change. This is due to
the well-known issue of the melting of the polar ice caps.
b. Besides temperature increase which impacts wildfires for obvious
reasons, there is more to it than just fires being easier to spark
because the global temperature is higher.

Dylan McEwan
SPCH 1311 MonWed 1-2:30pm
i. The temperature increase is directly responsible for the mass
Mountain Pine Beetles (MPB) Infestation that is occurring right
now in the north-western Americas.
1. These beetles are responsible for the killing of around
50% of commercial lodgepole pine within the province.
2. They are expanding and evolving so quickly that they are
no longer limiting themselves to lodgepole pine, but are
now reproducing in the jack pine tree which is the
dominant species within the boreal forests of Northern
British Columbia and Northern-central Alberta.
3. It is easy to see that since these beetles are killing so
much of these forests that it makes for a surplus of fuel
for these wildfires to make use of.
4. These provinces that are affected by the beetle have
invested in their own programs that find and detect
infested trees and ironically, burn them down to prevent
further spread of the beetle.
c. An approach that many governments are not willing to shed light on is
the fact that wildfires are a part of our very own ecosystem. We have
actively put out almost every fire that springs up and this is putting
consequences on the forests that these fires apparently threaten.
i. Why can fires start naturally, and be such a threat to our
forests? Well the thing is they really arent. Fires of course vary
in intensity, and ones with very high intensity can in fact be very
threatening. Fires of low intensity do not burn as fast, or catch
the same fuel sources as high intensity fires. These low intensity
fires actually act as a cleansing agent for our forests. Since we
practically put out every fire we see, we have created a sudden
buildup of fuel within our forests.
1. Since this buildup of fuel essentially makes the difference
between a campfire and a bonfire, these massive fires
burning our forests causes yet more consequences to our
soil.
a. Besides just being covered in ash, these high
intensity fires leave behind a wax like layer
substance that is hydrophobic. Now when it rains,
instead of soaking into the surface water pools
along the surface creating massive amounts of
runoff. This runoff goes along the incline of the
mountains and hills where it ends up putting the
areas at the bottom at alarming risk for floods.
d. The Canadian government isnt participating much in the climate
change scare. For comparison, Obama took a trip down to Alaska to tell
Alaskans that climate change is a problem. Straight oil country, being
told by our president that the fires of fossil fuels are a threat that must
be dealt with. The Prime Minister of Canada also took a trip to Alaska.
After 5 days, not a single thing was mentioned about climate change.

Dylan McEwan
SPCH 1311 MonWed 1-2:30pm

III.

Environmental Activist David Suzuki stated in an interview about the

Prime Minster that he has done a good job at suppressing these
government scientists and that has helped in keeping the scare of
climate change away from the spotlight. Once he removes these polar
expeditions that contribute to these studies there is never really huge
discussion over the topic. Suzuki suggests that once we start limiting
these governments in terms of scientific studies, we can stop the
censorship and take on these problems head on with the backing of
scientific studies.
Conclusion
a. Summary: These fires are responsible for ripple effects in our
environment, alarming statistics and facts, and could hopefully be the
leading step forward in recognizing and combatting climate change.
The problem of these wildfires are the cause of other problems like
flooding. Governments around the world have missed the fact that fire
is a part of our ecosystem, and we are interrupting that ecosystem by
putting all of them out. It is sad knowing that many recent
catastrophes have not brought light to this modern day crisis. Events
going all the way back to Hurricane Katrina can be linked to climate
change.

Dylan McEwan
SPCH 1311 MonWed 1-2:30pm

MLA Bibliography

"Climate Change and Fire." Natural Resources Canada. Natural Resources Canada, 2
Feb. 2016. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.

Joseph. "25 Alarming Global Warming Statistics." List25. List25.com, 25 Mar. 2014.
Web. 15 Apr. 2016.

Ministry of Forests. "Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations - BC

Wildfire Service." BC Wildfire Service. British Columbia, 2 Nov. 2015. Web. 20 Apr.
2016.

Vice. "British Columbia Is Burning." YouTube. Vice, 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

"Tria Decodes Mountain Pine Beetle Genome." Genomics Entrepreneurship. UBC, 27

Nov. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.