The Communist Party of Canada claimed this week that capitalism is responsible for the August wildfire season, according to Blacklock’s Reporter..People's Voice, a Communist Party of Canada publication, stated trees planted by forestry companies following capitalist practices were more likely to catch fire compared to other trees..“Canada’s carbon offset programs incentivize corporations to plant trees to ‘offset’ their pollution,” said the People’s Voice. .“The trees planted under these schemes are pinnacles of so-called capitalist efficiency.”.“They are densely packed clusters of single species which are extremely vulnerable to fire but are cheap to plant and fulfil legal requirements,” said the commentary. .“Their vulnerability stands in contrast to highly resistant, biologically diverse natural forests whose variety of flora resists uncontrollable spread of fire and dampens its severity substantially.”.The commentary, headlined “Capitalism Makes Wildfires More Destructive,” provided no source data. .“If the federal and provincial governments were serious about protecting communities from the direct danger of fire and the health risks associated with smoke, indigenous communities would be returned the authority to remove corporate interests from their land and manage the resources traditionally which contributed to healthy, sustainable ecosystems which dominated prior to colonization,” it said..Information from the department of Natural Resources showed between 2007 and 2017, forestry companies and provinces in Canada planted a total of 5.6 billion trees..“We harvest less than one percent of our forests in Canada,” Beth MacNeil, assistant deputy minister of Natural Resources, testified at 2020 Commons Natural Resources committee hearings. .“What we harvest, by law, has to be replaced.”.“Canada is a world leader, as you know, in sustainable forest management,” said MacNeil. .“What that actually means is if you harvest a tree, you’re legally obligated to plant one.”.According to the Yale School of Forestry, Canada has around 318 billion trees..“It is approximately one-quarter of the world’s remaining original forests,” wrote Yale..Statistics Canada, in a 2018 report Human Activity and the Environment: Forests in Canada, said, even in cities, tree cover averaged 14,400 square feet per person. .The department of Natural Resources in a 2020 commentary How Much Forest Does Canada Have? counted 347 million hectares, the equivalent of more than 858 million acres, most of it on Crown land.
