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Republicans threaten Canada with sanctions over drifting wildfire smoke
Smoke from the Canadian wildfires blankets the sky in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday. Photograph: Jeremy Wadsworth/The Blade/AP View image in fullscreen Smoke from the Canadian wildfires blankets the sky in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday. Photograph: Jeremy Wadsworth/The Blade/AP Republicans threaten Canada with sanctions over drifting wildfire smoke Fires are also blazing across the US and the Trump administration has repealed several climate protections US Republicans are threatening to sanction Canada and Canadian government officials after smoke from devastating wildfires has drifted across huge swathes of the US, creating hazy conditions and dangerous air quality for tens of millions of Americans. Donald Trump on Friday blamed his country’s northern neighbor for the smoke spreading from wildfires and said he planned to call Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, to ask about Ottawa’s plans for dealing with the blazes. In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the US had been “invaded” by dirty air. “[The] cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying,” he wrote. It comes a day after Bernie Moreno, a GOP senator of Ohio, said he would introduce a bill next week “to sanction Canada and the responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity”. In a statement he said Canada’s government had “failed to invest in wildfire prevention methods including forest thinning, fuel reduction, prescribed burns, and stronger enforcement against arson”. Ohio shares a maritime border with the Canadian province of Ontario. ‘Pray for rain’: wildfires in Canada are now burning where they never used to Read more Four Republican members of the House who represent Michigan, another state along the northern border, also wrote to Carney to say: “If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people.” Asked about the American accusations, Carney told reporters on Thursday: “Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States.” The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, said on Friday that the US could offer more aid to fight the fires, as Canada has done for its neighbor in the past. “Maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help,” Ford said. “Because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends, and that’s what you’re supposed to do.” Fires are also blazing across the US, in what the National Interagency Fire Center deems an above-average year . So far this year, more than 5,740 sq miles of the US has burned from wildfires, which is 31% more than the average of the previous 10 years to this date. The amount of US land burned each year in the 2020s – averaged out over a decade – is now more than twice what it was 30 years ago. In northern Minnesota , more than 63,000 acres have burned, while wildfires in Oregon , Washington, and Idaho, have al
