Shucking Oysters: The World is Burning

By Alex Allen

If you looked at any of the footage of the wildfires burning globally it’s beyond apocalyptic. In northern Ontario, the images are haunting. The sky with an eerie orange glow, as if the sun was setting in the middle of the day. Ash falling like snowflakes. The horizon thick with a growing cloud of smoke, curling upward and blotting out the blue sky. It was like looking at a towering, radioactive mushroom cloud. Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, North America, South America, no country is immune. The world is indeed burning or maybe Mother Earth has had enough with our stupid, ignorant ways.  

More than 150 million hectares of land has burned worldwide between January and April 2026, the highest figure on record. Africa had the largest burnt area, while Asia saw extensive wildfire outbreaks in India, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. In Africa, fires burned about 85 million hectares in the early months of the year. All are linked to severe drought, with warming and climate change playing an obvious role.

“These figures are yet more clear evidence that global heating – driven by pollution from coal, oil and gas – is burning up a staggering proportion of nations’ landmasses,” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Deadly wildfires have engulfed western Europe. France, Portugal and Spain have each been torched by a record-breaking number of wildfires. The UK had 19 separate wildfires last week, leading experts to warn of a “firewave” more widespread than ever before. 

Firefighters backed by 30 aircraft struggled over the weekend to contain a wildfire in northeastern Spain that ripped through an area the size of San Francisco, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 people. Scientists said there were thousands more fatalities recorded than normal during the heatwave that swept through Europe and Britain at the end of June.

Southern parts of Portugal could reach a staggering 50°C next week, which would be the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe. Spain could also see its record temperature potentially reaching 49°C. Several areas of France could hit 47°C, just inland from the Atlantic coast, including Bordeaux.

Wildfires are threatening Turkey, forcing 1,700 evacuations, with 84 separate blazes over the weekend. Turkey just recorded its highest ever temperature of 50°C in the southeastern Sirnak province. The blazes have threatened to cross borders into Turkey’s neighbouring countries of Greece and Bulgaria.

Professor Bill McGuire, Emeritus Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at UCL, warned we could see 50°C in Europe before the end of this year. McGuire said: “It would be no surprise if 50°C was exceeded, either later this summer or next year, when the heating impact of the unprecedented El Niño building in the Pacific will be at its greatest.”

He added that there was “no doubt whatsoever” climate change was driving the extreme heat, explaining: “Europe is heating faster than any other continent as we continue to add more than 40 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere every year – equivalent to the weight of 800,000 Titanics.”

“Nearly 10,000 excess deaths and the summer is not yet over,” said Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, criticizing governments for “still treating heat as a weather event rather than a health emergency,” despite existing tools and WHO guidance to prevent most of these deaths.

The latest data from France’s Ministry of Agriculture says nine out of 10 wildfires are caused by people. Often it’s campfires, discarded cigarettes or similar stupid human negligence. The causes of fires in the US are quite similar to those in France. According to data from the National Interagency Fire Center and the US Forest Service, 85% of fires are caused by people. But, in the US lightning-caused fires tend to burn more land because they often strike in remote, hard-to-reach areas. 

In Canada, smoke from the wildfires made Toronto the most polluted city in the world last week before it crossed the US border to choke New York. More than 930 fires were burning across Canada on Monday. Many blazes continue to threaten communities in their path, especially in Ontario where evacuations have displaced over 1,800 people. The Northwest Territories reports more than 200 active wildfires burning in the region, with 194 out of control. Seven new fires were reported on Monday.  The BC Wildfire Service says about 180 fires started over the weekend when storms swept over the province, releasing 33,380 lightning strikes.

There are many causes. One is basic mismanagement. Generations of logging, counter-intuitively, has produced forests far more susceptible to wildfires. The toothpick forests burn hot and fast. The forest canopy is sparser, meaning that brush dries to flammable crisp in the summer. This allows wildfires to spread into areas – in forests, but also in cities, parks and gardens – that were not as vulnerable before, increasing the danger at what researchers call the “wildland-urban interface.”

And now, because of Canada’s wildfire smoke, Trump is imposing 50% tariffs on a range of items, including wine, hockey sticks, and cement. “We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on weekend. “This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.”

As Lord Rump threatens us with tariffs over wildfire smoke, Senator Adam Schiff of California said states should be stepping up to help Canada. “When California was burning, Canada sent firefighters, planes and assistance – not insults,” Schiff posted. “As California and other states step up to repay the [favour], we should do so without the threats and ramblings of a failing leader. We should show some humanity.” Smoke from the Ontario wildfires have triggered air quality warnings across Ontario and in multiple states, including Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, New York and Indiana.

Even the day after Trump cock-blocked the Spanish football team’s winning moment he continued his rant: “I told them. I mean, you got to stop these fires from coming in and you know poisoning our air. Our air has been poisoned.” 

“In the end, the response capacity is limited,” said Juan Caamaño, the head of training at the Pau Costa Foundation, a nonprofit that is helping Northern Ireland and other cold regions in northern Europe prepare for worsening wildfires. “When we face these huge fires, these extreme events, it’s like trying to put firefighters on a beach to stop a tsunami.”