Donald Trump, Canada wildfire smoke and the US satellites he cut

As smoke from Canadian wildfires chokes the United States, Donald Trump has launched a fierce attack on Ottawa. Yet his own administration has halted development of US satellites intended to monitor precisely these fires.

Canada is once again confronting a major wildfire crisis. More than 950 blazes are burning at the same time across the country, particularly in Ontario and Quebec. Carried south by the wind, vast plumes of toxic smoke have blanketed cities including Toronto, New York and Chicago in a suffocating yellow haze. As a result, more than 100 million people are under heightened air-quality alerts.

Donald Trump has used the situation to target Ottawa directly. On his Truth Social platform, the US President accused the Canadian government of “gross negligence” in its forest management, calling the smoke a polluting “invasion”. Claiming that Canada is causing significant economic and health harm in the United States, he now threatens to recoup those costs by imposing fresh customs surcharges on Canadian goods.

Donald Trump attacks Canada over wildfire smoke

The criticism is bold, given that since returning to office, the Trump administration has mounted a wide-ranging campaign against scientific institutions and Earth-observation bodies. From NASA to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sweeping budget cuts have targeted climate and environmental research programmes, including GeoXO.

GeoXO satellites and cuts to scientific research

This next-generation satellite programme was meant to give the United States unprecedented capabilities for monitoring the atmosphere. The administration required its constellation to be cut from six satellites to four, while also cancelling a crucial instrument: a high-resolution spectrometer specifically designed to measure pollution, ozone and the density of wildfire smoke.

Washington’s stated aim is to refocus the agency on short-term weather forecasting by removing every tool dedicated to tracking long-term climate change. That means sacrificing instruments that had already been ordered from manufacturers.

A lost tool for monitoring toxic pollution

Yet this instrument could have been vital in dealing with increasingly destructive wildfires. By analysing the composition of the air in real time, the device was intended to give authorities highly accurate geolocated data on the progress of smoke plumes and concentrations of toxic pollutants. According to scientists at George Washington University, the health protection enabled by these measurements could have been worth $13 billion a year.

Donald Trump is therefore depriving himself of the very tools needed to anticipate and manage the crises he publicly denounces. It is truly a case of the snake eating its own tail…