Join PICS, as part of the Royal Society of Canada’s 2024 Celebration of Excellence and Engagement, for “Sparking A New Narrative: The Future of Climate and Wildfire”, featuring PICS-funded fire ecologist Dr. Kira Hoffman and moderated by PICS Executive Director Dr. Ian Mauro.
Across the globe, climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme wildfires and release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere: “the warming is feeding the warming”. In 2023, Canada experienced the worst wildfire season in recorded history, 15 million hectares burned, millions were affected by wildfire smoke, thousands were displaced, many people lost their homes, and ecosystems already under threat were disrupted.
British Columbia is on the frontlines of this fire story, it is a living lab where the challenges and solutions are being confronted, and researchers, practitioners, and communities are coming together to ask: how do we co-exist with wildfire? Transdisciplinary research, collaboration across Western and Indigenous knowledges, and commitment to decolonial landscape management practices are key.
As part of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) 2024 Celebration of Excellence and Engagement programme, this session will bring leading researchers and practitioners together in conversation to share their insights and reflections. This interactive dialogue will focus on the importance of ‘good fire’ on the landscape and the shifts in perspective, policy, and planning that is required to create a new narrative that allows us to collectively navigate risk, recovery, and the future of climate and wildfire.