Study finds global increase in hot, dry days ideal for wildfires, Dangerous days have nearly tripled in past 45 years – and increase largely driven by human-made warming by Associated Press, 18 Feb 2026, The Guardian
The number of days when the weather gets hot, dry and windy – ideal to spark extreme wildfires – has nearly tripled in the past 45 years across the globe, with the trend increasing even higher in the Americas, a new study shows.
And more than half of that increase is caused by human-caused climate change, researchers calculated.
What this means is that as the world warms, more places across the globe are prone to wildfires because of increasingly synchronous fire weather, which is when multiple places have the right conditions to go up in smoke.
Countries may not have enough resources to put out all the fires, and help will not be as likely to come from neighbors busy with their own flames, according to the authors of a study in Wednesday’s Science Advances.
In 1979 and for the next 15 years, the world averaged 22 synchronous fire weather days a year for flames that stayed within large global regions, the study found. In 2023 and 2024, it was up to more than 60 days a year.
“These sorts of changes that we have seen increase the likelihood in a lot of areas that there will be fires that are going to be very challenging to suppress,” said study co-author John Abatzoglou, a fire scientist at the University of California, Merced.
The researchers did not look at fires but weather conditions: warm, with strong winds and dry air and ground.
“It increases the likelihood of widespread fire outbreaks, but the weather is one dimension,” said study lead author Cong Yin, a fire researcher at University of California, Merced. The other big ingredients to fires are oxygen, fuel such as trees and brush, and ignition such as lightning or arson or human accidents.
This study is important because extreme fire weather is the primary – but not only – factor in increasing fire impacts across the globe, said fire scientist Mike Flannigan of Thompson Rivers University in Canada, who wasn’t part of the study. And it’s also important because regions that used to have fire seasons at different times and could share resources are now overlapping, he said.
Abatzoglou said: “And that’s where things begin to break.”
More than 60% of the global increase in synchronous fire weather days can be attributed to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Yin said. He and his colleagues know this because they used computer simulations to compare what has happened in the past 45 years with a fictional world without the increased greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
The continental US, from 1979 to 1988, averaged 7.7 synchronous fire weather days a year. But in the last 10 years that average was up to 38 days a year, according to Yin.
But that is nothing compared to the southern half of South America. That region averaged 5.5 synchronous fire weather days a year from 1979 to 1988; over the last decade, that’s risen to 70.6 days a year, including 118 days in 2023.
Of 14 global regions, only south-east Asia saw a decrease in synchronous fire weather, probably because it is getting more humid there, Yin said.
***
An El Niño is brewing And with it the next, pivotal, chapter of the climate fight. by Bill McKibben, Feb 16, 2026
Here’s Jim Hansen’s predictions for how hot it will get if an El Niño develops in the coming months. You can easily see what climate scientists are calling an acceleration of the pace of warming.
Imagine the wildfires, droughts, heat, cropfailures and the many dying, human and other species. Thirsty yet?
Dismantling Democracy ‘Shock and awe’ at DNR: Wildlife division gone, managers sacked, and restructured department geared for natural resources exploitation and extraction by Joan Baxter February 19, 2026, Halifax Examiner
Updated Feb. 20 with comments from DNR and the Ecology Action Centre
News of massive changes to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff landed in an email today, according to a source who asked for anonymity to protect his career.
The source describes the changes and sackings as “shock and awe,” and compares them to Elon Musk’s dramatic and vicious slashing of the United States’ public service by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last year.
The entire wildlife division in DNR is gone, replaced by something called “integrated resources planning,” which will be inside a new “Land Strategy and Planning Branch.”
That new branch will also include “integrated resource management,” “land administration,” and “surveys and research.”
“Forest health” will move into the forestry branch, and the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park will move to the Parks Division in Regional Services, the Examiner was told.
There will be a new advisory function within the assistant deputy minister’s office to “advance strategic priorities.”
Sources also tell the Examiner that managers who were focussed on actual forest health – managers of biodiversity, of ecosystems and habitats, and the head of the wildlife division – were sacked.
This afternoon the Examiner sent an email to DNR asking for confirmation that these people had lost their jobs, but did not receive a reply.
‘Deliberate step to realign how DNR is structured’
The email to DNR staff rationalized the overhaul of the department this way:
Today, we’re taking a deliberate step to realign how DNR is structured so we are better positioned to deliver on government’s mandate: driving economic development while maintaining strong stewardship of Nova Scotia’s natural resources.
Premier Tim Houston has made it clear in the past year that his focus is natural resources extraction, and he has disparaged Nova Scotians who are concerned about environmental health, biodiversity and forest ecology, climate, and conservation as “special interest groups.”
One person who asked not to be named called the restructuring “absolutely gutting” the department, and a way “to punish the scientists working on behalf of wildlife and ecosystems.”
“I doubt even senior DNR people fully understand what they’ve done,” said the source.
‘Absolutely disgusting’
Retired wildlife biologist and president of Nature Nova Scotia Bob Bancroft, who once worked in DNR’s wildlife division, describes the elimination of the division and today’s changes to the department as “absolutely disgusting.”
“This shows a complete lack of regard for the fact that we need to be living in a healthy environment, and we need to have game laws that protect the population,” Bancroft said in an interview.
He explained that the role of the wildlife division was to collect data on wildlife populations and habitats, have an idea of how wildlife populations were doing, and make recommendations about how to manage different species in different seasons.
Bancroft said Houston has been starving the wildlife division by failing to give it the resources it needed, and also by ignoring it.
Now that it’s gone, Bancroft is worried about all the science that will not be done, and the crucial information on wildlife trends that will not be there.
“Nature deserves a better shake in this province,” Bancroft said.
Feb. 20 update:
The new DNR organizational chart that went out to staff shows that the associate deputy minister will manage an “advisory team” of two project managers.
There are now five divisions in the department: policy and corporate services; regional services; land strategy and planning; forestry; and geoscience and mining. The former wildlife division, renamed “integrated resources planning” and tucked away in the new and sweeping “land strategy and planning” division, has two managerial positions, one of integrated resource planning that is vacant, and one called “sustainable wildlife use.”
No more managers dedicated to biodiversity, ecosystems and habitats, or wildlife.
We also received a statement from DNR in lieu of answers to specific questions. The statement reads, in part:
Government needs to become more focused and efficient, and the public service will do its part. That means aligning programs and services so that they are in the right place to deliver the best outcomes for Nova Scotians.
As a result of realignment, a small number of functions at the Department of Natural Resources are no longer required, resulting in 7 staff receiving layoff notices. All are non-union staff…
The realignment brings changes that touch on most of the department’s branches. We’ve brought together functions that naturally work together and we’re building capacity in key areas of the department, like economic analysis. The realignment reduces unnecessary layers, clarifies decision making, and strengthens our ability to act quickly and engage industry more effectively. Ultimately, it positions the department to develop our untapped resources and become the economic powerhouse we know we can be.
The key change is that we brought together several functions related to land use planning into one new branch. We are keeping wildlife experts who play an important role in helping determine where and how natural resource development is done. Wildlife staff moved from one branch into a new Land Strategy and Planning Branch to ensure stronger alignment with land use planning, stewardship integration, and to reduce duplication
There is no change to the number of wildlife technicians, biologists and other staff in our Regional Services branch who play an important role in supporting healthy wildlife and managing wildlife issues across the province.
‘Shocking and incredibly short-sighted’
Raymond Plourde, senior wilderness coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre, also contacted the Examiner about the restructuring of DNR. He described the elimination of the wildlife division as “shocking and incredibly short-sighted.”
“Managing and conserving wildlife and biodiversity has been part of the core mission of the department since its creation 100 years ago this year. Those responsibilities are also reflected clearly in the purpose of the Crown Lands Act,” Plourde said.
“When shocking things like this happen, we keep seeing the government language from spokespeople and politicians referring to the premier’s mandate to increase resource extraction,” he said adding:
The government has no mandate for that … The mandate they have is to protect and conserve and wise management … protect land, implement the Lahey Report, and a number of other good environmental things. That’s what the public voted for. What they did not seek approval for from the public in the 2024 election campaign was this supercharged resource extraction mania that they subsequently dropped on the people like a bomb in January 2025. The premier and the government did not ask the public about this in the election, did not put it forward in their campaign.
They deliberately hid it. Lying by omission is still practicing the art of deception.
Comments:
Ronald Williams says:
The Protected Areas Branch with NSDOE will be next. Then the delisting of existing protected areas begins. For industrial development with no real oversight, only self regulation. Only gets worse.
JDF says:
First, this government obtained this mandate, if you can call it that, by repealing their own fixed election law to call a snap election in the middle of winter during a postal strike. They won with the lowest voter turnout in the history of the province and almost half of those who did vote, didn’t vote for them. More important they did not run on any of the sweeping changes to governance or to the economic trajectory for the province they are proposing.
The development economist Paul Collier described resource extraction as very much a double edge sword in terms of development citing not only the serious environmental consequences but also the potential for corruption and poor governance that can result.
Nothing this government has done, from attempting to pass legislation allowing them to fire the auditor general and public servants without cause, to banning the media from the legislature and quashing FOIA requests should inspire confidence in the public that they should be trusted to work on behalf of the citizens or the environment of this province. Some of the richest countries in the world have become so without relying on resource extraction. It is the last refuge of incompetents in a developed country. It is one thing if there is a strategic requirement for a particular metal, but this is a vast country, and NS is a small province with many other advantages that will not be enhanced by resource extraction. The Financial Times just ran a podcast series on the toxic legacy of mining in Britain, a country similar in size to Nova Scotia. They do not have a mandate for what they are undertaking and they have done nothing to demonstrate they should be trusted to do it.
Poppacorn says:
Houston’s heavy handed, Trump-like actions show he is obviously not concerned about the PC party in the next election, or any other Nova Scotians, for that matter. By then, he’ll be back in Bermuda, mission accomplished, enjoying a top 1% income as a board member with some extractive company(-ies), and whatever other wealth he can pilfer from the people and province.
There must still be some integrity (and shame) in the party – outside Houston’s inner circle, obviously, who will sell out their own communities and families for a job title.
How many PC MLA backbenchers would need to resign to restore an official opposition?
How about floor crossings?
If Danny MacGillivray crossed to become the Liberal leader, could he bring a mass exodus with him and become premiere overnight? Not ideal, I know, but it’d be a vast improvement.
How else to break an ill-gotten super-majority?Soon, fraudster not a liberal Carney will get same, he’s evilly fooled so many Canadians.
Bradley Toms says:
This is a little wonky but the way DNR was structured having a Wildlife division and a Head of that division meant that when there were talks with senior management and when there was meddling by politicians, the wildlife division head was there as a voice for that file and that particular mandate. Any number of issue in the past had that voice there at the table advocating for these core aspects of DNRs mandate.
Taking away that structure means that that voice will be lost and decisions will go ahead without any input from that perspective. Now whomever end us as the head of Land Strategy and Planning will be, just some general bureaucrat who has no idea of the complexities of wildlife ecosystems and biodiversity and most likely will be a pro industry or RPF type. I can guarantee you of that. It will be a non union appointed position and they will be head hunting for the best boot licker they can find.
Regarding the updated statement, I can guarantee that nobody in the wildlife division was doing ‘duplicate work’. That’s subterfuge. It’s also subterfuge to claim that they were working in isolation. It’s the old adage of what they’re claiming of others is them telling on themselves and their own tendencies.
Ann Tagonist says:
‘Lying by omission is still practicing the art of deception.’ Well stated.
An excellent example . . . the provincial regulator identified the mine manager with a questionable safety record. The company is still granted permission to restart coal production but instead quietly leaves town. Oh what a tangled [webb] we weave.
https://www.fmshrc.gov/sites/default/files/decisions/alj/ALJd_5052017-LAKE%202015-587%2C%20et%20al.htm
Quarrygobbin says:
This is happening within other provinces and with the federal government too. Doesn’t it look like a Structural Adjustment Program (SAP)? Any government spending that doesn’t directly result in short term development of revenue, and preferably export revenue, is summarily cut. Government by rapingeconomists, bankers…and accountants?
bev wigney says:
We should not be at all shocked or surprised by the news that the Conservative government of Tim Houston has, without any apparent consultation with the publicjust like con man Carney, suddenly eliminated the Wildlife division of the Dept. of Natural Resources, rolling it into some weak, subordinate position far down the chain of command into some entity referred to as the Natural Resources Land Strategy & Planning section. In fact, when studying the new DNR organizational chart, it’s actually difficult to find any reference to “Wildlife”. Just one word inside one tiny box. It looks to be nothing more than a token “add on” — a last minute addition — some feeble attempt to (hopefully) satisfy the interests of those who actually give a hoot about nature, wildlife, biodiversity, and habitat preservation.
The truth is, we in rural Nova Scotia, have become quite accustomed to Premier Houston’s myopic urbanite view of this province. We get it. Rural residents don’t count anymore. We don’t need hospitals closer than a 2 hour drive away, or decent EMT service that arrives a half hour or longer after taking a heart attack, or recreational opportunities in forests that haven’t been reduced to matchsticks. We don’t need tourism offices to help direct some tourist traffic to our areas to help our local businesses, restaurants, and lodgings. Oh, the digital world will do that for us!! And we don’t need museums or parks for visitors to enjoy. We don’t need libraries, and (I hear) the latest news is that we’re going to lose some of our senior’s accommodations here in the Annapolis Valley.
So, why should we be at all surprised that we’re now losing the DNR Wildlife division?
Why should we care about losing jobs for those whose lifetime professions have been to study wildlife and help to preserve its necessary habitat in a world that is under siege from climate change and overzealous development?
Why would we need such a useless department that gets in the way of industry’s dreams of flattening the last of our forests, or turning our lands and rivers into open-pit craters, ore heaps, tailing ponds and leachate plumes?and likely frac’ing the shit out of every place possible too
What the Premier fails to realize, is that many people in this province, especially in the rural areas, but in urban areas as well, actually care about nature, wildlife and biodiversity. I’m not going to bother getting into how I know, other than to say that I’ve been involved in nature organizations here and in Ontario, for a good 50 years, so I KNOW. Just this morning, I checked to see how many Nova Scotians have submitted their nature observations to iNaturalist. I am pleased to report that, as of now, 22,436 of us have submitted 1,290,990 observations representing 11,894 species. That’s a LOT of people submitting a LOT of nature observations — and that’s just those who have taken the time to submit data of what they have observed when out in nature. Many more do not, so that gives you some idea of the vast numbers who are out there studying nature.
If for one minute, Houston believes that WE aren’t taking close note of what the government is trying to pull by doing away with DNR’s Wildlife division, he is sadly mistaken. We’re already “talking about” this on multiple social media platforms, and let me tell you, the “talk” is not very complimentary toward him – not that he probably cares. I’d say it’s a pretty good bet that his government will pay and pay dearly if it does not do MORE to protect Wildlife and natural habitat in this province, instead of carrying on with increasingly destructive and lousy forestry management practices, such as monoculture tree plantations that lay the way for cataclysmic forest fires such as the Long Lake Fire that destroyed 85 square hectares of forest here in Annapolis County in 2025.
We’ll be watching to see how well he IMPROVES the care for nature. If he fails to do so, he cannot expect any support whatsoever from us in the next election – especially from those of us in rural areas who are paying the highest price for all of the current government’s countless misadventures. One thing we can be sure to count on with naturalists — we are very observant, and we never forget anything. We’re very good at remembering who cares and who doesn’t care when it comes to the environment.
Lois Miller says:
I am shocked to hear that the government has eliminated the Wildlife Division in order to focus on the Premier Houston’s stated mandate of driving economic development. Where are the stewards of our lands and forests and the vibrant life they contain?
David Norris says:
Thank you Joan for reporting this terrible news. The only “special interest groups” that the Premier will listen to are Forest Nova Scotia and The Mining Association of Nova Scotia. Why didn’t the DNRR go all the way and change their name to IED (Industrial Extraction Department)? Truly a sad day for the environment in our (still) beautiful province.
Jan Peacock says:
His pal Doug Ford did it first.
Robert Bright says:
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Houston’s regressive and irresponsible agenda, policies and practices regarding environmental protections and conservation were outlandish and antidemocratic before this move. Has there ever been a con politico anywhere that gave/gives a shit about anything but money, serving polluters, destroyers and the rich? I not know of any. I guess having the unchecked power of a majority government has led him to push the envelope beyond any measure of reason or sanity. Drunk with power, he’s like Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burns. He has graduated to the level of the US President as an eco-terrorist.
I hope there is some mechanism in government that can prevent him from burning down the province with his utterly crazy resource extraction agenda.
Hopefully concerned citizens stand up en masse and demand their MLAs resign from the PC Party (Preternaturally Crazy Party) in order to rescind his majority government status.
Ann Tagonist says:
Further evidence the Premier emboldened by coal mine events not subjected to regulatory investigation(s).
ANGELA URQUHART says:
Just when I thought Houston had already dug Nova Scotia into a whole that could take years to get out of, it just wasn’t deep enough for him. I’m sad, worried and angry about what Houston is doing to the future of our province. It feels like it’s becoming a place I will not even recognize and makes me not want to live here.
I love the Cyril Sneer comparison, I think that should be Houstons new nickname.
Mary Anne Earle says:
Houston is paving the way for mining and exploration despite the objection of the citizens of this province. He is despicable.
Hugh Ronalds says:
Shameful!
Cassey Malone says:
I honestly want to know what is the line between calling, emailing and showing up at elected officials offices to express outrage and disapproval AND that can make meaningful change vs harrassment or hurting the cause? I don’t want to live here anymore if this province is going to allow this authoritarian Cyril Sneer to continue to destroy what little we have left. Financial economic productivity isn’t the only measure of value. And there are many ways to increase our economic activity that doesn’t involve irreversibly damaging the environment that needs to sustain us and the people who are responsible for that economic development. Houston and his cronies don’t care if the money stays here. If he did, he wouldn’t be in the Paradise Papers.
CarMa says:
I’m glad you asked this. I wonder the same, as I assume emails are many and easily deleted, calling assumes a conversation that seldom happens, don’t know about office visits. His priorities now are not what he ran on or was elected to do.
Bradley Toms says:
These divisions and sections of DNRR are trusted institutions. What’s important about them is that they are mission focused.
-Understand and protect the Biodiversity of Nova Scotia.
-Understand and protect the unique ecosystems and habitats in Nova Scotia,
-Maintain the health of game and non game populations of wildlife in Nova Scotia.
They are benevolent sections of DNRR meant to do science based work outside of the influence of industry and other sections of DNRR (Forestry and Mining). They have their own office in Kentville and they are and have been a self contained unit with their own division head (the other division heads being Forestry and Geoscience & Mines).
The people who were let go were managers in name and practice but also busy people doing important practical work day to day to protect wildlife, ecosystems and biodiversity. These are not big teams of people in Wildlife Division. This is a small, tight knit and well oiled machine.
The deliberate destruction of these government services (that one could argue are over half a century (1963) to over a century old (1915?)) as public services is calculated action to remove their mission focus and dilute the work that they do.
We are leaders in biodiversity conservation Nova Scotia in many ways. We had the first endangered species act in Canada and the first version of the Biodiversity Act was one of the most progressive pieces of legislation in Canada before it was diluted by industry interference.
But…we also have SO far to go before we are,
- free from having species at risk of extinction and
- carelessly causing extinctions and extirpation on a daily basis of species that we don’t even yet understand in even the most basic way (invertebrates, fungus, slime molds etc.) through unsustainable resource management and industrial practices.
As a person with fingers in several aspects of biodiversity and conservation I can say confidently…we know so little. That’s what you come to understand. We are flying blind and the main thing that worries me these days is how to get the human population to understand that fact and be humble in the face of our own ignorance.
We are in the middle of a global biodiversity crisis and climate crisis. We are not immune to either of those things in Nova Scotia just because the capitalists are in the mood to strip the land for resources and send all the money offshore in the name of ‘economic development’. Everybody whose paying attention understands now that you can’t have a healthy economy without healthy ecosystems… and you can’t have either of those if you aren’t taking care of every human… EVERYBODY…instead of funneling wealth upwards to the 1% or 5%.
We (now more than ever) should be investing in the people and institutions that contribute to understanding the natural world that underpins everything so that we can live sustainably within it. Indigenous organizations, Wildlife Division, universities ENGO’s etc.
People who are trying to do this are facing unemployment, under employment or outright intimidation for speaking up instead of being supported and properly resourced.
bev wigney says:
Very well said.
Dominique Gusset says:
Well said!
Donna Crossland says:
Houston may well be remembered as the Premier who traded Nova Scotia’s long-term ecological wealth for distructive, short-term industrial pipe dreams/get rich quick schemes. Resource extraction while ignoring the complexity and importance of intact nature will finish us all. My thoughts are with those dedicated biologists who were working on behalf of wildlife and healthy ecosystems. God help us all.
D Smith says:
The irony of Houston grandstanding over NSP, a previous Conservative idea to sell out the future for the present, as he sets up the land to be pillaged.
