For some unknown reason, I was absent-mindedly wandering through an old edition (July 13th, 2023) of The Valley Voice a few days ago, and came across another "Voice from the Valley", written by one of the local sages. Should you wish to see what attracted my attention, you can see it here, on page 4, where it's called "Wildfires".
So far as I can tell, the writer seems to be upset that forest fires have been renamed "wildfires", a term he believes is only used to scare us all. And, of course, scaring all of us is part of the "climate change agenda", presumably being pushed by radical environmentalists, the WEF, Bill Gates, the UN, the WHO and possibly even the NHL. I jest, of course, but the number of vocal conspiracy-minded individuals seems to have mushroomed recently. I think COVID-19 pushed some people over the edge. But I digress.
I just finished reading Fire Weather - The Making a Beast.
A good bit of this story describes the May 2016 fire that destroyed a few thousand homes in Fort McMurray and forced the evacuation of close to 90,000 people. Total cost has been estimated at close to $10 billion. In addition to destroying 2400 homes and other buildings, the fire burned 1.5 million acres and wasn't declared completely out until early August the following year.
One thing that struck me (among a list of many) were descriptions of houses being completely consumed by fire in around 5 minutes, start to finish. The speed and ferocity of this fire's advance was startling to everyone there to witness it (mostly professional firefighters). As the author points out, this is the way fires behave now, more like a wild beast than what we were used to.
So our local sage might believe that forest fires have been renamed just to scare us, but my observation, having read Vaillant's book, would be that our forest fires (aka: wildfires) ARE something to be VERY worried about, even scared, and maybe that's what it will take to prod us into the changes necessary to avoid worse in the future.
I wonder what the residents of West Kelowna thought as last summer's "wildfires" swept down form the hills and raged through their neighbourhoods. Did they think "wildfire" was just a scare tactic?
Our local sage goes on to rail against the hated Carbon Tax, insisting that it's ineffective, a cash grab by government, unnecessary....you get the picture.
(For those who might have forgotten, the Carbon Tax wasn't brought in to "save the planet". It was brought in partly to act as an incentive - financial - for people to make different energy choices. It was also brought in as a tax on pollution, since fossil fuel burning has been polluting the atmosphere for free for decades. In fact, the taxpayer supports billions in $$ of subsidies to the fossil fuel industry each year, just so they can keep doing what they've always done).
Danielle, of course, is still looking for arsonists.
Our local sage mentions a number of things that aren't quite the way he describes them. For instance, Germany dismantling a wind farm to make way for more coal mining. What he neglects to mention is that the wind farm in question had been in use since 2001, the turbines are much smaller and less efficient than current models and despite plans to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2030, there are still concerns with adequate power supply, especially in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This isn't happening because renewables aren't working or because climate change isn't real, as our sage tries to infer. Two stories here in the interests of promoting more informed discussion - more easily available on the Google Machine.
Of course, this is what governments often do. Here in Canada, despite all the nice-sounding talk, REAL action to address climate change has been tepid, at best.
I hear talk that the next Federal Election will be a Climate Change Election. I'm beginning to believe that will mark a turning point. Either we will DO something or we will kick the can down the road another few years, by which time it will be even more difficult (and expensive) to change our current trajectory.
As for Fire Weather? Find the book and read it. It will be well worth your time. And if it doesn't make you afraid of your next forest fire experience, I will be very surprised.
[Update: In an exchange on that anti-social platform run by Meta, one commenter responded to my post by name calling - socialist, communist - and pointing the finger of blame everywhere except at the very activities that contributed to making the Fort McMurray fire what it was - CO2 emissions from the oil and gas industry which are directly linked to a warmer climate which, as expected, is making forests hotter and dryer than usual, especially for that time of year. Mr A.B. Woodpile (clearly not his real name - I often find these people don't have the guts to do anything other than hide behind fake identities) apparently doesn't realize that taxpayers paying billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and paying for abandoned well cleanup, messes left behind by oil and gas companies, is a classic example of socialism.
Mr Woodpile also claimed that the then-Premier, Rachel Notley, refused industry help in creating fire breaks so it was HER fault that the fire entered Ft McMurray. The facts are that over 500 hectares of fire breaks WERE constructed in an attempt to stop the fire. They didn't work. The fire also jumped the Athabasca River, and thus gained access to the city, at a point where the river was close to half a kilometer wide. This is the nature of more and more of our fires these days. And we know why.
As an aside, during last summer's fires in the Okanagan, the West Kelowna fire jumped Okanagan Lake. In Ft McMurray, spot fires were starting kilometers ahead of where the fire front actually was.
One other thing I discovered while looking for information related to the Ft McMurray fire. Apparently Russia offered some of its huge fire-fighting airplanes which they use there. The Federal government turned them down. Why? This was a massive fire with smoke plumes reaching up into the stratosphere. So, very limited visibility, combined with pilots unfamiliar with the terrain. It's a known fact that aerial accidents are the main causes of death during fire fighting operations. It was deemed unsafe to add massive planes with unfamiliar pilots whose English language skills would likely not be that great, to an already dangerous situation in difficult terrain and conditions.
I understand that Mr Woodpile is bitter and angry, but his anger is misplaced and poorly informed. As Jim Prentice said some years ago, look in the mirror for the source of your perceived problems.]
