Hacker News Reader

Canada already has a reciprocal firefighting agreement with America, so if we need external help, we have it.

Inviting a totally foreign country in which you're in a) fighting a proxy war with in yet another part of the world; and b) fighting a passive battle for northern sovereignty/control with seems like an incredibly stupid idea.

Canada has many forest fires on the go every year and are generally only worth fighting when they threaten communities. Forests are meant to burn. I have friends who work in emergency fire fighting in Saskatchewan and they have not been deployed to the Northern fires because it is not the problem the media is making it out to be!

Some forest are meant to burn yes, the problem is that with climate change forest fire now burn further north and for much longer than before.

Drought conditions and the heat traps that are cities prevent proper rainfall which stops them and changes we've made to the landscape can prevent burn outs which also make fires last longer.

And more importantly while forest fires are natural it doesn't mean it's good, we had at least one fire related extinction event, and even considerably smaller scale fires can be disastrous to humans so while it's true that to some extent the policy is let it burn in this case it's not longer really the case.

And while I would also agree that Canada is in a political muck with Russia it doesn't make sense to deny their help, Israel accepted Turkey's help to combat forest fire when their relationship was arguably at the lowest point shortly after the flotilla incident. Governments should know when it's a good time to put a halt to their differences and emergencies are as good as an excuse as any.

P.S. With forests being natural carbon traps climate change is now just as important factor as threat to communities and livelihood with the amount of CO2 were putting into the atmosphere we might not be able to longer afford for forest fires to take their natural course if we actually want to start reversing some of the changes we've made. This isn't some clear cut case, and in this case it seems that Canada does take help from certain countries but for some reason refrains taking it from others and in such cases politics should really be the last thing on your mind.

Yes, you might have a big argument with your siblings, be very angry at them, and if they still got into a car crash you're still going to be at the hospital with them. There may be political differences but we're all human beings here.

The problem with accepting any kind of help from Russia is that the Russian government is single-mindedly focused on geopolitical leverage. It does nothing out of the kindness of heart. Every offer of assistance, every interaction with a foreign government is a calculated maneuver. No thanks.

You make it sound that it's not the deal with every other country in the world.

Let's compare the number of countries that Russia has subjected to energy blackmail to that of literally any other country, for starters.

To make it more interesting, can we compare the list of counties that Russia has blackmailed to a list of countries other big countries have blackmailed? The west won't look so pretty then.

This holds for pretty much every government.

> And while they might be arseholes on the political scene otherwise every time there is a large scale fire they do extend their hand and come in with serious help.

It's difficult to top the US in terms of foreign policy assholery though.

Indeed but for most of the HN readers US foreign policy more or less aligns with their interests. In general talking about politics on HN isn't a good idea, mentioning ideas that the current conflict with Russia is largely in part due to the EU and NATO expansion is even more so. While I don't like what Russia is doing in the Ukraine and in many other parts of the world I can hardly blame them as they are living the nightmare scenario of being the largest landlocked country in the world. They've lost the post cold war "buffer" to the EU, they are at risk of losing the control over the gas and oil pipelines from the Middle East into Europe, and they are encircled by NATO. If Canada and Mexico would've joined the Warsaw Pact the US would've nuked Moscow.

Yeah, HN users, in general, have a very jingoistic point of view despite whatever progressive leanings they may have.

> a permafrost that holds insane amount of methane and other carbohydrates.

I never had this thought until now, but the things you eat are called carbohydrates whilst the things you burn are called hydrocarbons.

Carbohydrates like Glucose contain Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen (C6H12O6). Hydrocarbons like Methane contain only Carbon and Hydrogen (CH4).

I take your point, but do we not say that ethanol powered cars run on hydrocarbons?

You are correct sir! :D Never drink and post