What the Wildfire Smoke in Your Sky Has to Do With the Ocean

0:02 I know this episode is not directly related to the ocean, although there is a connection to the ocean, which I'm going to talk about. Today we're going to be talking about the wildfires that are happening not only in Northwestern Ontario and Canada, where I live and how I was affected last week, but also fires across North America because there were plenty. And there's some blame that was going around for the Canadian fires, but there was also American fires. We're going to talk all about that. What the cause was, how do we do? How do we go about protecting them? How to like what the policy needs to be, budgets need to be, how countries can work together and what we can do in the future and how this is going to affect climate change in the future.

0:43 We're going to talk all about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. This is where you get your ocean news every weekday, Monday to Friday. If you are interested in learning more about the ocean and more about what's happening to help cause the ocean to either help protect it or help make it worse, this is the podcast for you. So hit that follow button on your favorite podcast app and you will be able to get together with me on tomorrow's episode and the day after and the day after that and the day after that all the way till Friday. So, but we're also and also if you want to support the show, if you've been listening to this for a while and you say, hey, Andrew does a lot. He does a lot on podcasts. He has a lot on YouTube. He does a lot on Tiktok. He does a lot on Instagram and everything like that.

1:23 You can let me know. You can support me by going to my Patreon page speakupforblue.com forward slash Patreon. That's where you go to ensure that we can bring in more stuff. We can pay for editors, all that kind of stuff. It helps me bring the information to you so we can be that resource on the ocean for you. So it helps you make better decisions around the ocean. Today we're going to be talking about something that is what feels like largely out of control for us. You know, we don't really have a huge direct cause, but we are affected by it, whether it's directly or indirectly. Last week, as I got back from my trip from Costa Rica, which was a lot of fun with my family, got to meet, got to see my daughter, not meet my daughter, got to see my daughter who's doing a great 12 English class down there and experiential learning, which is very, very privileged to do so.

2:12 And she's loving it. She comes back next week, but she doesn't want to come back. But regardless, she's going to be coming back and I can't wait to see her. But, you know, we, we came back and we had some great weather, you know, got out of the humidity of Costa Rica, came back to Toronto, Burlington, where I live. And we had some great weather. It wasn't humid. It was like a nice little breeze come through about 25 degrees Celsius was quite nice. A little bit of humane, but not much. And then a couple of days later, we got the humidity, got hit dead smack with the humidity. And I remember at 830 in the morning, I came in from walking my dogs and I was like, Hey, you know, it's, it's, it's beautiful outside. I was even telling my mom was on the phone with me in the morning and I'm like, Hey, this is wonderful. Like, this is actually quite nice to be able to enjoy this type of weather. And then I come out, I let the dogs out like maybe a half hour later and I look around.

3:00 I'm like, looks and smells and tastes a little smoky outside like a campfire. I'm like, that's interesting. So I let the dogs come back in. I go out the front, I take a picture and I'm like, huh, it's kind of grayish, a little hazy outside. And then four hours later, you know, we realize that I was probably a little bit of wildfires are coming down. We get them every once in a while, once the wind shifts. And then four hours later, just I live west of Toronto. All of a sudden, the sky was orange. It felt like like apocalyptic. You know, I in my office where I sit, I have a skylight and I look up at the skylight. And I said, Holy cow. Like it is orange. I can see the sun. Everything else is orange. It's cloudy. It's hazy. Wow.

3:41 This is really interesting to see and obviously not really good. I look at the air quality index, the AQI, and we are at Toronto. It has the worst AQI in the world at that moment. That's disgusting. I've never seen that before. I'm sure it's happened before, but I've never seen that before. And so we were told to stay indoors. If you go outdoors, if you need to go outdoors, sunglasses, mask, you know, like all that kind of stuff, particles in the air, all that kind of stuff. And it happened for a couple of days. Didn't stay orange all that time, but it would go up and down and the air quality index would go up and down. Luckily today, it's Sunday. It is as I'm recording this for tomorrow's episode, Monday, if you're listening to this on Monday, all of a sudden, I'm like, wow, this is interesting to see.

4:24 There is, uh, it's beautiful outside. The humidity is gone. You can see everything blue skies, no orange tinge, no campfire smell, no campfire taste. And I'm like, wow, this is kind of great. We got some rain the day before all the smoke is gone. However, when I go look at our wildfire map in Canada, I look over and there are actively about 900 forest fires, wildfires in Canada. And if you look at the map, uh, which I can't show on the audio podcast, obviously, but if you look at the map, you can see that, you know, it's basically follows the boreal forest. The boreal forest goes across Canada from the east all the way to the northwest.

5:05 And you can see that these wildfires follow that. And of course, just depending on the shift of the winds of whether we get the smoke or not, the smoke went from all the way from northern northwest Ontario for us. And it went all the way down into the US like past Toronto into the US into like the eastern seaboard. Um, people obviously weren't happy. People in Toronto weren't happy. Uh, people down in the States weren't happy. There were a few senators who said that there should be sanctions against Toronto or against Canada for not handling their wildfires very well, which we'll talk about both of those things in a bit about how Ontario manages their wildfires as well as how, um, you know, the US or one of the put sanction on us.

5:48 The US President Donald Trump said that he wants to put tariffs on Canada or he will be putting tariffs on Canada because of these forest fires, whether any of that's going to come to fruition. I don't know. Um, but you know, regardless, it just left a bad taste in our mouth. No pun intended here in Canada. Uh, but we're going to be talking about a bunch of these things, but this is what happened over the last week, you know, and it not when it goes away, a lot of the people around here, like around Toronto and I'm sure south of the border are like, oh, thank God, it went away. Like we're out of it now. It's kind of, it's kind of good. Unfortunately, with all these, uh, with all these fires burning.

6:28 This, this is all affecting the people where people live, you know, Northwest and Ontario is a populated area, not highly populated, like Southern Ontario, where you have millions and millions and millions of people, but there are people out there. Unfortunately, our most vulnerable first nations and small towns that are in there had to be evacuated. They had to be moved. Um, they lost their homes. They lost everything. Memories, all that kind of stuff. Like just culture because they, we don't know when they're going to be able to go back and unfortunately this is happening more often than not. We use this. This is a three years and this is a second year as has happened and it's just devastating and unfortunately, uh, this isn't going to go away. You know, we don't know when these are going to hit. We don't know how intense they're going to hit, but it's, it's, it's here.

7:13 The thing is, is like when we look at how our boreal forest, like our boreal forest across Canada is like, it's one of the planet's biggest carbon sinks, right? So when it burns, uh, the, that stored carbon gas or goes into the stored carbon goes into the atmosphere and roughly a quarter of all human caused CO2 emissions gets absorbed by the ocean. Right? So, so there's a connection to the ocean here. And so more of that atmosphere carbon eventually means more ocean acidification. And of course that, that, that period was just taken up too much. They can't absorb anymore is coming even closer and closer. Now fire retardant and ash will run off into drain and drain into watersheds in Northwest Ontario waterways feed into the Great Lakes, which eventually connect to the Atlantic via the Gulf of St.

7:59 Lawrence. So we eventually get into the ocean. And of course it can go into the Hudson's Bay. It can go into the Arctic. It can go into the West Coast when you have fires out the West. So it goes into the Pacific. So it goes into all of the oceans eventually, uh, you know, that, that surround Canada as well as the US and other places that are experiencing wildfires. Um, and then of course the smoke and heat domes are a land ocean atmosphere system story, right? That's what really, we're coming up with the same heat that, that of dome that's pushing smoke into the US is part of a broader ocean driven climate pattern. And, and the thing is too, is like, what's interesting is that there's an El Nino around, right? Scientists have reported El Nino, which makes things drier. So the cause of this is, is like, look, it's, it's not as humid, which it normally is humid. So you get more water in the air, which makes it a little bit harder to have fires. Uh, and then of course it has, you know, it has, so with less moisture, moisture makes it drier.

8:57 So fire is easy to spread. There might be increased winds, which is easy to spread with the wildfire. Now, most of, of the, um, of the fires were caused by lightning, right? And so, um, you know, as these, as lightning strikes and then you get drier conditions, you get fires, the wind blows and you get, you know, these, these massive wildfires. When I look at the map, there are a lot of wildfires that are out of control. Some are being monitored, some aren't being monitored, but the most of the map is, is peppered with wildfires that are out of control in Canada. Right? That's not good. There are some in the States as well. There are some in Colorado, there's some out west. Um, and the ones in Colorado, the, actually the, the, the, the smoke from the one in Colorado, the ones in Colorado are actually coming up into Canada, into southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan province.

9:46 In Canada and affecting in Canada. So here's, here's the thing about this whole wildfire and smoke going across borders. Smoke doesn't see borders. Wildfires don't see borders. They see heat. They see dryness. And when you get a lightning strike, you get this massive expansion of fires. You get the fire started and then you get wind and you get this, these dry conditions. Just allow these wildfires to spread. Right? And, and to cause the damage that we're causing right now. Being in an El Nino year, it makes it worse. Being in a super El Nino, uh, you know, sort of time. It is makes it even, even worse.

10:28 And that is something that, um, is not a good formula for what we're doing here. You know, for what we're trying to live in and live across. So I think that's, uh, a good way to do it. I think that's unfortunate. And I think that's, that's really, it's, it's really hard. There were over 900 forest fires, wildfires in Canada as of Friday, July 16th. That's devastating. That's, that's sorry. 16th. That's really devastating. That is something, you know, nobody wants to see. Uh, and, and it's going to get worse. We're going to see, we're going to see more of these, these wildfires climate change, increased weather, like increased intensity of weather systems changing in, in weather patterns and climate patterns.

11:15 We're going to see all this with climate change. It just exacerbates everything that we are looking at. And unfortunately, there are many families that have been affected by these wildfires up north as well as down south where these, where these winds are blown. And, but when the wind stopped blowing in the, in the direction where people are starting to notice, especially over like, uh, Queen's park, which is true. The capital, like in Toronto is the capital of Ontario where decisions are made policy decisions are made. You know, if those are gone, they're out of sight, out of mind. So people stop worrying. They're just happy that they can actually do some, some work. Um, so I think that's, that's a big, a big problem.

11:57 Now there are some conspiracies that arson starts a lot of this. And I wanted, I want to just kind of tell people that a quarter or less than a quarter. So a 4% of cases in wildfires are arson related, meaning that they're done on purpose. There are some that are started because people are maybe some careless or careless or they start a fire when they shouldn't be starting a fire. And then the fire continues. Most of the fires, a majority of the fires are started by lightning strikes in Ontario. And so, you know, I think that's, that's a really big problem. In the bigger picture, when we look at it, scientists are attributing the underlying dry, hot conditions fueling these fires to human caused climate change. Right. So that's what we're looking at.

12:42 Now the, when we're looking at the consequences of this, the consequences are really a lot of the times we're looking at. And so the consequences of this is that more than 1600 first nation residents have already been displaced by wildfires this season and the season is far from over. And so it's unfortunately, these are the places that are most vulnerable in 2025 alone 44,000 over 44,000 people from 61 on reserve first nations were displaced by wildfire giving useful year over year context. Right.

13:32 And so if you think about what you keep in your home, let's, let's bring it down to a personal level. Like if my home ever got burnt down, knock on what I hope that never, never happens. Pictures, memories, keepsakes that we have in our homes are gone, you know, and of course the home's gone. Right. And if it takes out an entire neighborhood, takes out an entire area town, entire town, that's devastating to the town. And so it loses the culture, loses the ability to rebuild in those areas, right? There's a lot of, you know, once you lose your homes, there's a lot of cleanup, there's long displacement timelines. The rebuild costs are expensive. Ensure having to deal with insurance and things like that. It's really bad. And of course, when you have wildfires, you have forest loss, you have reduced carbon sink capacity because we lost those forests.

14:17 And then of course, it also meaning less CO2 absorption. And when forests burn, they put it, they give methane back into the atmosphere, which is even worse to the greenhouse gas effect. So that's always bad. And of course, the El Nino intensity through fall and winter raises the odds of continued heat and dryness, feeding future fire risk and a feedback loop worth naming explicitly. And a fear we're going to take that out and a feedback loop that is really not a good thing that happens. Now let's talk about the politics. Let's talk initially about the international politics because that's making big news right now. We had Donald, President Donald Trump and a couple of senators saying that Donald Trump said we're going to put, he's going to put tariffs, increased tariffs on Canada for not handling their wildfire, I guess, readiness and preparedness or ability to control those wildfires.

15:06 So he's going to put tariffs on them because they're affecting the US air quality. And then there are some senators in the US that's federal senators in the US that said, hey, let's put sanctions on Canada for not being able to control their forest fires. Of course, it's a ridiculous statement, in my opinion, even from a scientific opinion, it doesn't make sense. On the one hand, climate change is real. I know a lot of people in the US don't think about it in the government, but climate change is real. We're seeing these these cases where these wildfires are popping up left, right and center from lightning strikes from whatever the cause and they're getting out of hand and they're really difficult to control. So it's not as if they're not trying to put together stuff. We have lots of equipment. We have a lot of equipment that we lend the US when they need help, which leads me to my second point.

15:57 Canada and US are allies. I know a lot of times in the news and some politicians are making it look like we are not allies. We are allies. And when the US has problems with wildfires or any kind of problems, we send our best equipment and our best people over there. In fact, unfortunately in Colorado, there was a Canadian firefighter who passed away trying to fight the fires in Colorado because Canada sent them there to help them out, right to help the US out. So the fact that and of course, I've mentioned earlier that the fires in Colorado, the smoke actually goes up to Canada because of the wind. And so we're all feeling the effects here. The big thing is is like when when these disasters come across, the big thing that we need to do is really stick together and help each other out. It's not a matter of who's to blame and what we need to do. We need to help each other out.

16:49 You know, lend equipment, lend people and resources if we can, and then not vice versa. We help each other out because it's to be honest, we all benefit from helping each other out. Plus, it's a good thing to do with our allies and our neighbors. And that's what we that's what we do as Canadians. And I hope the US I know the US has done in the past. I hope they continue to do that in the future because we need to help each other out. It's just in Mexico as well in the Caribbean. We need to help each other out. We need to lend each other our resources and our people. That's what we do. We've always done that and we'll always continue to do that. Now, what's interesting from an Ontario perspective from what I've looked into is that the Ontario government spent 271 million on emergency firefighting in 2025 and 2026. But the budget but only budgeted 150 million for 2026 and 2027.

17:38 So they actually reduced the baseline budget by quite a bit. And in 2024, Ontario budget 135 million but spent 171 million and 2025 the budget stayed the same while actually spending 271 million. So there's obviously they're always going to spend more and the base budget is there to make sure that the people who are fighting fires and the firefighters as well as the forest managers have the means to prepare proactively prepare to manage these forest fires. So if they're not if they're just not there, they can't get specific equipment. They can't get specific resources. So when wildfires do come up, that money has to be given extra money has to be given lickily spit because the people aren't prepared. The divisions that need to go out and fight these fires and control these fires and help with the managing of the forest at that time in a reactionary mode, then there's increase in budget.

18:36 And Doug Ford, who's the premier of Ontario for those in the US, it's like our governor for Ontario. They, you know, he said, he said, look, he's like, we always he goes, I always support our firefighters. He kind of took insult to it. And he said, look, the base budget was this, but we spent 271 million in 2025 and 2026 to fight these fires. But again, it's version, it's reactionary versus proactiveness, right? It's better to be proactive and prepare for the worst because we're seeing the worst than it is. To just give money. Obviously, you're going to give emergency funding when it needed, but to make sure that these the people that need to fight these fires and can help control these fires have the equipment and the people and whatever else they need to help get out there as quickly as possible and even prevent like manage these a lot better. So yes, from the US saying we need to enter.

19:26 And we have to make sure that we don't have to spend too much money on this all every year because we may not need it every year, but I'd rather be prepared and spent overspend than not prepared at all. So yes, I think it's a weird situation to be in, especially when you have neighbors who are trying to put sanctions and or tariffs on it. Now, will those go through? Probably not. I feel like it's just the US trying to help protect the US citizens. But unfortunately, that's just the way it is. I'd love for us to control these fires better, but with climate change, low budgeting for preparedness, it doesn't really make sense in a lot of ways. And I have a feeling that the US is in the very similar situation. So that's a really difficult thing to do.

20:20 Now, I don't want to just kind of come here and be like, hey, you know what, like we need this is it. There's nothing you can really do. There is some stuff that you can do. So I want to talk a little bit about that. Right. So the first thing is, is your personal safety. Look and check your air quality. Right. So Environment Canada or air now, if you are spending extended time outdoors, especially with kids or older adults or with pets, things like that, or anyone with asthma or heart conditions, make sure you check the air quality, make sure it's safe for people to go out. There's always indexes, whether it's on a phone app or whether it's on the AQI website, you can go in and you can check that out and look at that. And if you're in or near a fire zone, you know, I want you to, I want you to look and make sure you understand and follow the evacuation orders immediately rather than waiting. Like several evacuees this season had to self evacuate because of this last minute. Some of these evacuees had to be airlifted out. Some went by boat, depending on where they live. So these, these fires, they travel quickly.

21:23 So making sure that you have a 72 hour go bag ready when they tell you to have it ready. That's always a good precaution. And then when they tell you to get out, you get out as soon as possible. And then of course, like when it comes to government, you want to push for real accountability on wildlife budgets or wildfire budget. Sorry. Contact your provincial MPP if you're in Canada or your government representative, if you're somewhere else, if underfunding frustrates you.

22:18 And this is a policy choice, of course, it's not just like an act of nature alone. So this is something that, you know, we can have policymakers step up to do. And I think that's really good. And of course, you know, looking at climate change in general, reducing your own carbon footprint is still one of the few levers individuals have like the control of on the underlying warming trends of driving both worse, like it drives both worse fire seasons and ocean acidification. So if you're looking to protect the ocean, you're also looking to protect people, reducing your footprint for climate change and making sure that you are pushing your elective members of government to do the same thing. I think that's, that's really important. But that's it for today's episode. I want to go over that. I know it's not directly related to the wildfire or to the ocean, but it is affecting oceans at some point in time. So I felt like it was important.

23:09 It was in the news. It was big news. And I think that's important. It was big news. And I feel like it needs to be addressed. Look, the big message is we are all in this together to fight each other on who gets sanctioned or who needs terrorists because they can't manage things. We should be working together and finding out how to better manage our force. There's no doubt about that. But on both sides of the border, any side of the border, it's something that we're going to have to do. It's something that is changing all the time, especially when we're in El Nino situations or we're in climate change. And obviously we're in both. So that's something that's in this apparently it's could be like a super El Nino and some of the worst ever. So it's going to happen again next year. If we continue with these dry conditions and we're going to need to be prepared, better prepared this year than we were or next year than we were last year. And of course the year before. So that's what I have to say. I would love to hear if you have any questions or comments. Let me know in the in the show notes.

24:04 Let me know if you want to get a hold of me. You can DM me on Instagram or on talk. And of course, if you want to learn more about the ocean, you go to speak up for blue dot com and and if you want to support me and go to speak up for blue dot com forward slash patreon. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.