OTTAWA, Canada — New research concludes that human-caused climate change significantly increased the likelihood of the extreme fire weather behind Canada’s devastating 2026 wildfire season, contradicting President Donald Trump’s repeated emphasis on poor forest management.
World Weather Attribution found that the hot, dry and windy conditions affecting northwestern Ontario and the Northwest Territories were at least twice as likely because of global warming. The group’s rapid-attribution studies use observations and climate models to compare current conditions with a world without human-driven warming.
Trump has accused Canada of failing to properly maintain forests and brush, even threatening tariffs over wildfire smoke drifting into the United States. Researchers say management practices can influence how fires spread near communities, but climate change is worsening the underlying heat and dryness that make large fires more likely.
Canada has endured three exceptionally severe wildfire seasons, with millions of acres burned and smoke repeatedly degrading air quality across the United States. As of early August, more than 4,500 fires had burned roughly 3.9 million hectares nationwide.
The study recommended stronger early-warning systems, improved coordination among firefighting agencies and greater use of Indigenous knowledge in wildfire planning.
The findings do not suggest forest management is irrelevant. They indicate that management alone cannot explain the worsening scale and frequency of extreme Canadian fire seasons as temperatures continue to rise.
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