WILDFIRES | CLIMATE CHANGE | CANADA

Canada Is Burning

This is the reality of climate change

If you live in Canada, you have likely felt the effects of this. The wildfires are numerous. Hundreds of them burn out of control in Western Canada and our North. It has been devastating to many.

I’ll admit that I don’t watch the news. I haven’t in over 15 years. I learned early that the news brought doom and gloom and I don’t really want any part of that. I choose what I want to know about through platforms like YouTube. I try and control what comes into my orbit, and I tend to keep it uplifting and light if I can.

But I haven’t been able to avoid this bad news story.

Where did we spend the summer?

We spent most of this past summer in Canmore, Alberta. Located at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, it is right in the path of the jet winds that blow from the western shores of our country. It also sits at the edge of a very vast and continuous forest. One that is currently very dry.

Fires broke out startlingly early this year. On May 16th, smoke entered the valley and became so low to the ground that we couldn’t even see some of the tree tops, never mind the mountain tops.

As you can see above, it was pretty bad for a couple of days. Thankfully this was the worst we saw it for a while, but starting in June the smoke returned in different waves and amounts, and it didn’t seem to end. People’s discussions and plans started to revolve around how bad the smoke was. Forget talking about the weather.

Even now, I am told, they are shrouded in smoke.

Even before we left Canada back in 2017, the forests in British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province, were on fire. We experienced our own smoke days a couple of times in Powell River, the coastal town that we lived in.

The fires were a bit worrisome for us because we lived in a heavily forested area that was only accessible by water. I did consider, on occasion, how devastating a fire could be out there when the only option to get out is by ferry.

But these fires were still few and far between. By the time another smoke day would roll around, we had forgotten about the last one.

Sadly, that’s not the case these days.

So where are we now?

These days we are hanging out on a farm in Eastern Alberta, well away from the forests of the West, on vast, flat, and uninteresting land, mostly.

Actually, this particular area is punctuated with gently rolling hills. Even Chris, who grew up on the prairies and vowed that he would never move back, has admitted that it is beautiful here.

With these flatter lands come strong winds. One would think that smoke would have no time to build up here because the winds would carry it away. But no. They are just blowing in more smoke.

These days, instead of checking the weather network, I tend to look more at the website, firesmoke.ca, which gives us the forecast of smoke.

The yellow blob is smoke, and the red circles indicate current fires that are burning in each area. As you can see, much of North America is being affected by these fires, it isn’t just a Canadian problem. In fact, if we zoom this view out, we will see that many parts of the world are experiencing wildfires. It’s just a part of our landscapes now.

Where will this all end?

I will admit that all of this feels much like an apocalypse these days. In fact, while listening to the song, Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, the line “This is it, the apocalypse,” finally made me understand that here we are. We ARE living through an apocalypse. And that is why life is so hard.

Of course, this is not an apocalypse like we see in the movies. Well, at least it isn’t yet. But one can’t help but feel a sense of doom and gloom as we drive the roads through Canada.

Is it true that we won’t get fresh air again until winter comes and the snow blankets the landscape? Right now I can see that it’s certainly a possibility.

As you can see, there are still numerous, out of control, wildfires that are burning to the north and west of us. This isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

Entire cities and towns are being burned to the ground. It is a tragedy.

I don’t have any answers

I’m not writing this article to yell at the climate change deniers or people who couldn’t give a crap about the environment. Yes, I have had bones to pick with those people in the past. But these days, I don’t need to be one of the ones who is shouting from the rooftop that climate change is real.

It is here, we can all see it.

Is it a normal cycle? Has it always been this way? Who knows. What I do know is that it is awful. Many have been affected by these fires and many will continue to be affected by them. My heart goes out to those people.

I also don’t write this to jump on the doom and gloom bandwagon. I’m simply sharing information and showing others what we are dealing with here in Canada. I always feel like the rest of the world thinks that Canada is just full of sunshine and roses and nothing could possibly go wrong here.

And I will admit, we have had some great years in this country. But these days, our country is singing a different tune.

These days it is mostly a tune about fire and smoke.

This is life in Canada. Now, in 2023.

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