Did Climate Change Contribute to The Fort McMurray Fire?

MACLEAN’S

Smoke  from the Fort McMurray fires has now spread over the eastern Canadian prairies and much of the US. NOAA map.

Experts say forest fires are more frequent, and more intense, due to climate change. Story here.

Destructive Wildfire Near Canada's Oil Sands May Have Been Fueled by Global Warming

SCIENTIFIC

AMERICAN
The devastating natural disaster in Fort McMurray is “consistent” with climate change. More here.

Photo by DarrenRD

Bakken Oil Field In North Dakota Causing a Rise in Air Pollution, Study Says

BILLINGS GAZETTE

An oil and natural gas field in the western United States is largely responsible for a global uptick of the air pollutant ethane, according to a new study. More here.

Mass Evacuation as 'Apocalyptic' Inferno Engulfs Canadian Tar Sands City

A view from the south...

Common Dreams

'There was smoke everywhere and it was raining ash,' says Fort McMurray evacuee. More here.

Is Manitoba's New Government Already Failing the Environment? (Editorial)

by Larry Powell

Well, another Manitoba election has come and gone. And we got the change we wanted. 

Or did we?

To me, it still seems like the goal of “evidence-based” policy-making, often promised by politicians of every stripe, remains as elusive as ever.

Take climate change, for example. 

Wildfire Destroys Fort McMurray Homes, Most of City Evacuated

CBC News

Alberta has had many severe wildfires over the years. While none has been quite as bad as Fort McMurray, the smoke from this one in 2011 near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, could be seen from space. (NASA photo.)

Thousands of people are fleeing Fort McMurray as wildfire leaps highway and into city. More here.