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Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

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Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#111

Post by snowwindwaves »

sandworm101 wrote: post #109
snowwindwaves wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only grows that thick after it has been clear cut. Old growth forests have a high canopy that starves thick underbrush for light. Humans clear cutting are part of the problem. When there is a forest fire in old growth the brush might burn but the big old trees will survive several fires.

The north is different. The trees are not the giant cedars of the pacific coastal rain forest. There often isn't anything to call a canopy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canada

ah ok. I've only been up north once around terrace and bell 2 which is still kind of coastal compared to fort Mac

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#112

Post by noarchy »

sandworm101 wrote: post #109
snowwindwaves wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only grows that thick after it has been clear cut. Old growth forests have a high canopy that starves thick underbrush for light. Humans clear cutting are part of the problem. When there is a forest fire in old growth the brush might burn but the big old trees will survive several fires.

The north is different. The trees are not the giant cedars of the pacific coastal rain forest. There often isn't anything to call a canopy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canada

Canadian here. I'm often amazed at how tall the trees are, when I've visited the southern US. I'm not even that far north (I'm near Ottawa), but the differences are still quite obvious to me.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#113

Post by hackney »

I find it kinda sad we can rocket around the universe but we can't put out a fire in our backyard. Airports should be built and staffed like fire departments for our wilderness. Wouldn't take a lot of staff except for the pilots of course. I think the money spent, taken from the military budget, would work perfectly.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#114

Post by dogma1138 »

rangibaby wrote: post #77
giarc wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the time Russia came along, much of the populated area's were out of harms way. Adding more aircraft that are all using 1 or 2 airports is just more congestion.

An advantage of all Soviet-era planes is they can use any crappy airfield without breaking a sweat.

Russian firefighting aircraft are sea planes they are designed to land in a lake or in littoral waters to take on water they've been very successful at fighting fires in Greece and Israel with using the med as their water supply.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#115

Post by zzalpha »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #94
fudged71 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the bright side, it is opening up some long-overdue political dialogue. For example diversification of the Alberta economy away from natural resources. Calgary's downtown office towers have reached record high vacancy rates, with so many engineers laid off. I'm hoping this is an opportunity for tech companies to take notice and move in.

The city in Alberta that makes more sense for an software engineering industry is Edmonton. The University of Alberta is one of the top CS/engineering schools on the continent. I keep mentioning this to my coworkers at Google. A second Canadian engineering office in Edmonton would be awesome. And then I could move closer to my family.

Please no. With the oil downturn we can finally find qualified software devs to hire... the last thing we need is Google snapping them up!

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#116

Post by yeowMeng »

snowwindwaves wrote: post #108
yeowMeng wrote: post #107

Interesting fact: Aboriginal people living in North America before first contact with Europeans used to perform periodic controlled blazes on the land. Motivations including making the land easier for hunting and preventing uncontrollable fires from gaining strength. Now, the land grows thick until fire comes to clean according to natures' idea of natural process. I tree planted in BC/Alberta, the land grows so thick…

It only grows that thick after it has been clear cut. Old growth forests have a high canopy that starves thick underbrush for light. Humans clear cutting are part of the problem. When there is a forest fire in old growth the brush might burn but the big old trees will survive several fires.

This is true. But Aboriginal's did execute controlled burns for reasons XYZ.

One reason for controlled burns was to create a funnel in a thick new growth area in order to funnel the herding animals for hunting purposes.

These controlled burns had successs in diminishing the risk of wild unstoppable fires.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#117

Post by redthrowaway »

MichaelGG wrote: post #52

And yet, Canada turned down help from Russia and the US. Then went around and hired 300 firefighters from South Africa that have no experience with this type of fire or equipment (they said due to lack of water, they use sticks to beat the bush fires). I understand it's more of a social help program ("Working On Fire" job assistance), but still it seems bizarre. Or maybe I've been reading the wrong news sources and t…

We turned down the help because it wouldn't have done any good. The fire was too large for people to put out. Only rain can kill it now.

Believe me, we didn't turn down help out of pride. We have a ton of experience dealing with these things. We know when a fire is fightable, and when it isn't.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#118

Post by vehementi »

redthrowaway wrote: post #117
MichaelGG wrote: post #52

And yet, Canada turned down help from Russia and the US. Then went around and hired 300 firefighters from South Africa that have no experience with this type of fire or equipment (they said due to lack of water, they use sticks to beat the bush fires). I understand it's more of a social help program ("Working On Fire" job assistance), but still it seems bizarre. Or maybe I've been reading the wrong news sources and t…

We turned down the help because it wouldn't have done any good. The fire was too large for people to put out. Only rain can kill it now. Believe me, we didn't turn down help out of pride. We have a ton of experience dealing with these things. We know when a fire is fightable, and when it isn't.

I love how everyone else is just inventing shit about foreign policy. Folks y'all can talk good about hacking but it doesn't mean your armchair intuition is right about specialized issues in other countries

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#119

Post by tn13 »

dredmorbius wrote: post #103
tn13 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure why learned members of HN don't get sarcasm. But anecdotally Trudeau was worried about carbon footprints from a camp fire he once attended, but these wildfires don't bother him.

Poe's law. I've seen far too many (AFAICT) absolutely sincerely intended idiotic statements here. I mostly simply let them fly. xkcd 386 only gets you so far. Adding a tag to your comment helps.

I don't think is necessary one your rely on his/her own human intelligence.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#120

Post by tome »

dogma1138 wrote: post #80
dogma1138 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turning help from Russia was stupid they actually got allot of experience the great northern forests of Russia are probably the closest environment to Canada and if they go a blaze it can cause an extinction level event on a planetary scale so they are actually well prepared for that at least as well as anyone can be. They even have reportedly tested killing forest fires with nukes if a Siberian tundra fire goes out…

I guess Russia is still unpopular on HN. Russia has allot of experience with wildfires it has the largest and densest northern forests in the world combined with a permafrost that holds insane amount of methane and other carbohydrates. Climate change and forest fires are huge national security issue to Russia and if they go out of control it can cause horrible damage to Russia and even then entire planet as it can ca…

> a permafrost that holds insane amount of methane and other carbohydrates.

I never had this thought until now, but the things you eat are called carbohydrates whilst the things you burn are called hydrocarbons.

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