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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

#171

Post by shalmanese »

tome wrote: post #120
dogma1138 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Carbohydrates like Glucose contain Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen (C6H12O6). Hydrocarbons like Methane contain only Carbon and Hydrogen (CH4).

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

#172

Post by lostlogin »

ende wrote: post #168
dogma1138 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make it sound that it's not the deal with every other country in the world.

Let's compare the number of countries that Russia has subjected to energy blackmail to that of literally any other country, for starters.

To make it more interesting, can we compare the list of counties that Russia has blackmailed to a list of countries other big countries have blackmailed? The west won't look so pretty then.

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

#173

Post by lostlogin »

mig39 wrote: post #130
redthrowaway wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any smoke damage? I would imagine that would be incredibly expensive to fix. Glad to hear you're doing well.

No smoke damage at all. Last thing I did before leaving was turn off the AC and close all the windows. Some of my neighbours weren't so lucky -- some have a lot of smoke in the house, so have to replace or clean some furniture and have walls cleaned. Still, even that's nothing compared to completely losing a house. I lost power for a total of 20 minutes through the whole thing. My video surveillance system kept runni…

Wow, what could you check? Presumably a video feed told you if on fire/ not on fire. That's one stressful check to be making.

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

#174

Post by sintaxi »

MichaelGG wrote: post #162
Kluny wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they need experience and training, so they're here to get it.

They're also getting paid for it. I'm not against it, just annoyed how it's being published. The real story is "Canada gives South Africa over $2M, trains firefighters". Not "South Africa helps out Canada; pays back apartheid debt". It's shameful to spin it like that.

I for one am very grateful they are here to help. Should be a clear win for both sides.

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

#176

Post by snowwindwaves »

noarchy wrote: post #112
sandworm101 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the ottawa valley has been completely logged as well. 100ft tall white pines used to cover the area

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

#177

Post by tome »

shalmanese wrote: post #171
tome wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Carbohydrates like Glucose contain Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen (C6H12O6). Hydrocarbons like Methane contain only Carbon and Hydrogen (CH4).

I take your point, but do we not say that ethanol powered cars run on hydrocarbons?

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

#178

Post by astrodust »

Kluny wrote: post #147
MichaelGG wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The South Africans are here for diplomatic reasons more than anything So it's just a Trudeau-like "diversity" hire or something? Not to say that in a mean way, just that they are not the most qualified and have only received minimal training. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't being praised as "South African government sees it as repaying a debt to the Canadian people for their support for the anti-aparth…

Yeah, they need experience and training, so they're here to get it.

Talk about experience. That's got to be crazy for them.

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

#179

Post by astrodust »

MichaelGG wrote: post #63
dkn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually our airspace was saturated. We had more aircraft ourselves we could have put up but it would have been unsafe to do so.

Really? The fire is over 1000 square km, and there's only like 30 aircraft, right? Plus SA isn't contributing aircraft, only people that have gone through a 10-day "boot camp". It seems very weird that Russia and the US have nothing to contribute, but inexperienced folks from SA do.

They don't land just anywhere, plus you need a tower to coordinate them, and Ft. Mac is hardly a bustling metropolis.

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

#180

Post by astrodust »

patmcc wrote: post #87
wrong_variable wrote: post #3

Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.

Anecdotally, most people I know and talk to in Canada (myself included) are doing fine; the low dollar hurts if you want imports or to travel abroad, but is good for exports and tourism. Alberta is hurting because of oil, but other provinces are doing decently well employment wise.

Film industry is going berserk. It's like they can't film enough things here now.
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