The wildfires raging through parts of Canada are some of the most devastating evidence of the effects of climate change to date, experts say but for some conspiracy theorists, about 137-thousand square kilometres of burnt ground isn't enough to convince them of this scientific consensus.
Space lasers, arsonists and efforts to restrict people's freedom of movement are among the explanations bandied about in fringe online circles where the wildfires are framed as the latest plot point in an ever-growing web of conspiracy theories tinged with fear and hate.
Eric Kennedy, associate professor at York University's school of administrative studies, says people turn to conspiracy stories to help understand and explain the world when making sense of a disaster such as in Hawaii or the recent wildfires in British Columbia and Northwest Territories.
He says some of the conspiracy theories about wildfire create simple villains, or simple evil characters.
Sometimes the simple stories are very appealing, he says, and sometimes it's about fitting into an existing world view and making things make sense within that paradigm.
Kennedy says solutions are needed at lots of different levels to snuff out conspiracy theories.
He says the most important thing that people can do is to be careful when they find information that confirms their belief.
At an institutional level, Kennedy says, emergency management agencies need to earn public trust and not take it for granted.