The reaction of the propaganda media in America to the wildfires in Canada follows the axiom, 'never let a crisis go to waste.' The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBCNews and The White House, to mention just a few, were all over the climate change political narrative as the reason for this and for every wildfire. “[It’s] yet another alarming example of the ways in which the climate crisis is disturbing our lives and our communities,” Jean-Pierre said during the White House press briefing. “The west coast has dealt with this for some time.” In an Opinion piece this weekend in the Wall Street Journal, That’s Smoke, Not Climate Change, writer Mary Anastasia O'Grady nails the political narratives being passed around last week. "Canadian forest fires provide fresh fuel for the familiar simplistic political narrative...Their claims are bunk." ... Evaluating the causes of this complex event call for humility, curiosity and thoughtfulness. But, media types, and politicians like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, President Biden and others, who all say the science confirms their climate change rhetoric are wrong. A 2020 study, “Trends in Canadian Forest Fires, 1959–2019,” found that “there was a sharp increase in destruction caused by forest fires” in the first half of that 60-year period, “and a general decline in the second half.” The study, published by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, reported that “the all-time peak of fire activity in 1989 involved some 7.6 million hectares burned, while the most recent national data show only 1.8 million hectares burned in 2019.” Fire activity varied significantly across the country. Whereas Alberta had its second-highest fire loss in 2019 (1981 was its worst), in the prairie provinces “peak fire activity occurred several decades ago.” In the east, levels of forest fire activity were “steady.” Two years later, Quebec’s boreal forests are ablaze, New York is eating the smoke—mostly due to a fluke weather system—and the anti-fossil-fuel crowd isn’t about to let a crisis go to waste. Drought conditions make matters worse when there’s a fire. But the blazes themselves are often caused by lightning. Fire is part of the natural life cycle of a forest; it’s what spurs those pine cones, carrying seeds, to open up. Some extreme environmentalists think forests should remain out of bounds to all humans. But as Natural Resources Canada points out, “There is no such thing as untouched forest in Canada”—or one that’s unchanging. “In the forest, nothing is ever static. This is particularly true in the boreal forest, which is ecologically adapted to renew itself through disturbances such as fire.” Ms. O'Grady offers the best way to describe the left's reaction to forest fires, 'simplistic political narrative'. More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required):

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