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Climate change doubled risk of B.C.’s record-setting 2017 wildfires: study

Environment Canada says global warming likely to increased amount of land burned by up to 11 times
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The scene from Boston Flats, near Ashcroft, B.C., where dozens of mobile homes were burnt to the ground in 2017. (Arnold Lim/Black Press)

Research from Environment Canada says climate change at least doubled the risk for B.C.’s record-setting 2017 wildfire season.

The newly published study adds that global warming is likely to have increased the amount of land scorched in the fires by up to 11 times.

READ MORE: 2018 now B.C.’s worst wildfire season on record

Study author Megan Kirchmeier-Young says scientists are increasingly able to demonstrate the role that climate change plays in specific events.

She says more researchers — using new statistical methods, better data and more powerful computers — are linking overall warming to local events.

In 2017, 12,000 square kilometres of forest burned in British Columbia.

That was a record until last summer when 13,000 square kilometres were devastated.

The Canadian Press

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