Wildfires affect us all. Canada needs to improve logging practices.

In the Summer of 2023, smoke filled the skies across North America – from Montreal and Toronto to Vancouver and across the boreal forest. Canada's forests were on fire.

Mega-fires ravaged vast forests on a record-breaking scale. People struggled to breathe; businesses shut down, and even a simple stroll outdoors became perilous.

Many, rightly, pointed their finger at climate change fuelled by the release of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, for increasing the risk of wildfires. Unprecedented heat events, prolonged dry and windy weather conditions all contributed.

One crucial piece was missing, though. The role of industrial logging.

Industrial logging cuts down mature, complex forests and replaces them with younger trees. This results in fewer species and a simplified structure that has not been naturally selected. It also leaves behind an extensive road network that fragments and degrades the overall health of the ecosystem.

All these activities arguably leave Canada's forests more vulnerable and less resilient. It adds to our global climate warming woes.

To make matters worse, logging releases greenhouse gases on par with some of the highest emitting sectors in Canada, helping increase the risk of more megafires.

The world is relying on nature to absorb 50% of carbon emissions if we are to reach net zero by 2050. We can't achieve that if we continue to degrade the very ecosystems we are relying on to save us.

With warnings that perhaps an ever-worse wildfire season is coming in 2024, forests need a new approach based on climate resiliency, biodiversity conservation and a breathable future. Tell the Canadian government we all share the air. Sign the petition.