Climate activists are calling out U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman after the Watersmeet Republican sent a plea last week to a fellow member of the Canada–United States Inter-Parliamentary Group, seeking immediate action to manage and mitigate wildfires and consequently, the spread of Canadian wildfire smoke.
In his letter to Canadian Sen. Michael MacDonald, chair of the inter-parliamentary group, Bergman requested greater accountability from the nation of Canada and stronger forest management policies, including forest thinning, fuel reduction and the use of prescribed burns.
“In recent years, communities across my district—and across much of the northern United States—have been increasingly impacted by the devastating effects of wildfire smoke originating in Canadian forests. While wildfire activity is a natural occurrence, the volume, frequency, and intensity of recent smoke events are unlike anything we’ve experienced before,” Bergman wrote.
This smoke has led to widespread air quality alerts, alongside school closures, outdoor activity cancellations and serious public health risks throughout Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, Bergman noted, raising particular concerns about the impact of wildfire smoke on public health.
According to an Aug. 4 report from CBS News Detroit Chief Meteorologist Ahmad Bajjey, the state has seen 28 days of advisory or alert-level air quality due to wildfire smoke since its first alert in 2023.
“Hospitals and clinics across my district are seeing higher rates of respiratory distress, particularly among vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and those with preexisting conditions. The combination of chronic exposure and limited local control over the source of the problem has left many of my constituents feeling frustrated and forgotten,” Bergman said.
While Teresa Homsi, deputy director of Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action commended Bergman for calling out the public health risks, the organization challenged the representative for failing to consider a key factor contributing to these wildfires: climate change.
“It is a little bit ironic to focus on Canada’s forest management techniques when our current federal government is dismantling programs that present long-term solutions to the underlying drivers of wildfires,” Homsi told the Michigan Advance.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has sought to roll back several vital climate policies and protections, from federal support for solar and wind energy, to the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 finding that six greenhouse gases – including carbon dioxide – trap heat in the atmosphere, threatening public health and future generations.
According to NASA, the warming climate is amplifying wildland fire activity, with extreme wildfire activity more than doubling worldwide.
NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites detect active wildfires twice each day. Scientists studying this data over a 21 year span found that extreme wildfires are more frequent, more intense, and larger. The regions with the largest increase in extreme fire behavior are the temperate forests in the Western U.S. and the boreal forests in northern North America and Russia.
Additionally, wildfires can be a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, feeding into the warmer, drier conditions that are increasing the risk and length of fires to begin with.
Alongside children and the elderly, Homsi pointed to individuals with asthma, allergies and lung conditions, pregnant people and outdoor workers as groups who are particularly susceptible to the impacts of wildfire smoke.
“When there’s intense wildfire smoke, it obviously negatively impacts the air quality. And so, people have to spend their summers where they’d like to be outside. They end up having to shutter themselves inside, within air conditioning, if they have it,” Homsi said.
For people who have asthma or are considered sensitive, Homsi said the smoke can make it more difficult to breathe, and even painful to exhale.
“Even as someone who doesn’t struggle with allergies myself, I felt myself getting really winded and tired and groggy,” Homsi said.
Wildfire smoke has also been linked to worsening mental health conditions as well as increased risk of dementia.
Homsi said Detroit has been particularly impacted, ranking among the worst air quality in the world.
Pollution from industrial sites within the city can contribute to worsened air quality, with the combination of worsened air quality and wildfire smoke acting as a double whammy, Homsi said.
Rather than blaming Canada, Homsi and her fellow clinicians called on Bergman to defend the health and the environment under threat from the Trump Administration.
A request for comment was sent to Bergman’s office, but has yet to be answered.
Homsi stressed that regulations like the Mercury and Air Toxics standards address the short term health effects of air pollution and greenhouse gasses.
“We’re focused on the immediate impacts, right? The wildfire smoke, that’s affecting people right now. But then as you’re dismantling these programs, you’re only making the conditions that contribute to those wildfires worse,” Homsi said.
She also pointed to reporting from the New York Times which noted fire mitigation strategies like prescribed burns and fuel reduction are simply not possible due to the remote nature of where these fires are burning.
Additionally, Daniel Perrakis, a fire research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service in British Columbia, told NPR that neither the United States, nor Canada has enough firefighters to address the fires.
While Bergman’s acknowledgement of the health risks brought by the wildfires was validating, Homsi said Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action would encourage Bergman to stand up for the EPA and the programs offering “the most sustainable, cost effective and long term solutions for turning the side against these wildfires.”
This post contains content that was first published on Michigan Advance and republished here under a Creative Commons License.
