As I write this, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) website is reporting 427 active wildfires across Canada (the year-to-date figure is 2,391 with a total of 4.4 million hectares burned).
I’m not sure why I’m telling you this.
If you live in Canada, you know that summer this year hasn’t yet begun and already, we’re in fire season (evidently, only Prince Edward Island has not had a fire). The news stories (and the smoke) have also reached the USA.
And this 4.4 million hectares figure? I don’t know what that looks like and my guess is that I’m not the only one. One hectare — 10,000 square metres, about the size of a football field — I can wrap my head around, but 4.4 million hectares?
I spent a few hours searching for sources to help me visualise 4.4 million hectares. Where I ended up was looking at land areas by country. Setting aside for the moment different counts for the number of countries in the world, if we use the most common count of 193 countries recognised as nation states by the United Nations: only 88 have a land area that is greater than 4.4 million hectares. This translates to approximately 54% of countries — such as Denmark, Belgium, Jamaica, or El Salvador, to give just a few examples — having a smaller land area than what has burned in Canada thus far in 2023.
That is what 4.4 million hectares looks like.
And it leaves me not knowing what more to say, other than: please respect fire bans and thank you to the fire-fighters.
a few words ... from Montréal 