Deadly wildfires raged in the Canadian province of Manitoba this summer, with smoke reaching the northern US states, and several US politicians have called on Canadians to take responsibility for “their” smoke, the BBC reports.
Republican Representative Calvin Callahan of Wisconsin sent a letter in early August saying that the state’s skies were being obscured by smoke that “we didn’t start and can’t control.” Callahan, along with lawmakers from Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota, have filed a formal complaint with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calling for an investigation into Canada’s handling of the wildfires.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has condemned the politicians’ actions, saying they are playing politics and playing politics.
In August, wildfires in Manitoba had already burned more than 8,000 square kilometers of forest, forced thousands of people to evacuate, and killed two people. As September draws to a close, data suggests that 2025 could be the second worst year for wildfires on record.
Smoke from wildfires creates
a type of air pollution called PM2.5 that causes inflammation in the human body.
It can exacerbate asthma and cardiovascular disease, and can cause neurological damage. Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia, said air pollution-related illnesses should be treated as seriously as cancer.
American lawmakers want to blame only Canada for the situation. Callahan wrote in August that Canada’s failure to contain the massive wildfires has damaged the health and quality of life of more than 20 million Americans. Such complaints raise the question of whether Canada could have done more to contain the flames and, with them, the smoke.
Mike Flannigan, an emergency and fire science expert at Thomson Rivers University, said that until society comes to terms with human-caused climate change, the problem will not go away.
Statistics show that Canada’s wildfires, part of the life cycle of its vast boreal forests, have become more intense in recent years.
In 2023, the flames burned more than 149,000 square kilometers
(for comparison, the area of Latvia is 64,589 square kilometers). In 2025, more than 85,000 square kilometers burned. By mid-September, more than 500 fires were still burning, mostly in Manitoba and British Columbia.
More than half of Canada’s wildfires are caused by lightning, while the rest are caused by human activity. Experts have warned that warmer temperatures are making vegetation drier and more likely to catch fire.
Canada is not alone in the situation. The United States is also experiencing devastating wildfires, with the worst of them hitting Hawaii and California. Both countries are trying to control the situation, often sharing resources. In Canada, the situation has prompted calls for a national fire service. Currently, each province and territory operates on its own terms. Flanigan said that such a system could have worked 40 years ago, but is not appropriate today.
Others have called for controlled burning, which is used in Australia and by indigenous communities.
True, this method would also produce smoke. Others have suggested that more attention should be paid to removing flammable materials, mainly dead trees, from forests and near cities. Another proposal is to invest in new technologies that would allow for faster detection of forest fires.
University of Alberta professor Jen Beverly warned that Canada cannot completely eliminate forest fires. She said that Canadian conditions are very different from those in Australia or the United States. In many places, fires are burning in hard-to-reach places where extinguishing work is difficult, and the number of such fires is increasing due to climate change.
As the climate continues to warm, attention should be paid to pollution. She pointed out that the United States is the second largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world, and added that the United States should actually be blamed. In recent months, the administration of US President Donald Trump has withdrawn several environmental policy documents that provided for reducing emissions. The United States has also withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Cornell University environmental policy professor Sheila Olmsted said Canada and the US have worked together on climate and pollution issues in the past, including signing an air quality agreement in 1991. Olmsted told the BBC that this is what is missing now – clear guidelines for solving the problem. Both countries would benefit from it.
As for the politicians’ complaint, it is not clear what the EPA could do about it.
Professor Brower told the BBC that the effects of a warmer climate are localised, with both winners and losers. However, the Canadian wildfires clearly show that the impact can also be global.
Read also: Neglected power grids exacerbate the devastation caused by forest fires