[Wildfires. Photo Credit to Rawpixel]

Wildfires have already burned more than 7.6 million hectares across Canada in 2025, devastating forests and wildlife habitats in what has become the country’s second-worst wildfire season on record.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), a total of 7,779,082 hectares have been scorched so far this year, which is nearly 240% higher than the 10-year average of 3,135,187 hectares. 

At present, 460 wildfires are currently classified as “out of control.”

“The size of the burned area will not go back to where things were 25 years ago. This is just our new reality and we need to be prepared,” said Paul Kovacs, executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University, in an interview.

The destruction is felt not only in the forests but also in the species that depend on them.

Trees are reduced to ash, ecosystems are stripped bare, and wildlife suffers greatly.

Animals lose their shelters, and those with limited mobility often die from burns, smoke inhalation, or lack of escape routes.

Even survivors may face starvation as food sources vanish.

After the ravages of the fire, some forests regenerate, but others fail to recover, leaving behind blackened trunks and charred soil.

“Forests are not as resistant to fires as they once were,” WWF-Canada warns, emphasizing that today’s wildfires are so intense and widespread that some forests cannot recover as they once did.

This weakening resilience in forest systems highlights the danger of ecosystem collapse. 

The Canadian Climate Institute links this trend directly to climate change, stating: “Accelerating climate change, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, makes wildfires bigger, hotter, and more frequent.” 

Rising global temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns have altered Canada’s climate.

WWF-Canada points out that prolonged droughts, especially in the country’s interior, create perfect conditions for flames to spread.

In 2023, some regions endured  temperatures up to 10ºC higher than normal, leading to more than 15 million hectares destroyed. 

The devastation continued in 2024 and persists into 2025.

Scientists warn that the problem is not confined to Canada.

Across the world, hotter and drier conditions are fueling destructive blazes.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) reports that “Extreme heat waves are already 5 times more likely today than they were 150 years ago and are expected to become even more frequent as the planet continues to warm.” 

WRI also notes that wildfires burn more than twice as much tree cover each year compared to the last two decades. 

Even the world’s largest tropical rainforests are not an exclusion from this trend, which are usually protected by their intense rainfall. 

In 2024, fires accounted for 48% of all tree cover loss in tropical forests like the Amazon and Congo Basin.

These forests are crucial for storing carbon and moderating global temperatures.

With millions of hectares burning year after year, the warning signs are impossible to ignore.

Wildfires are not just natural disasters; they are a visible warning of climate change’s growing toll, demanding urgent attention and action.