Teresa Homsi

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 wildfire smoke. In his letter to Canadian Sen. Michael MacDonald, chair of the inter-parliamentary group, Bergman requested greater accountability from Canada and stronger forest management policies, including forest thinning, fuel reduction and the use of prescribed burns. …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 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.