It's *FINE*

 

Since Meta is blocking all 'news' content from Canadian media, I have been sharing updates on FB about the current wildfire situation here in Canada.

Yesterday, amidst the updates to the current wildfire situation, we were told to expect things to get progressively worse here in BC over the coming weeks.

We have had the worst wildfire season on record this year.  Which isn't actually close to being over.   Thousands of people have had to be evacuated from remote locations (the entire town of Yellowknife, now, as well as Hay River and Enterprise, all in NWT.  Enterprise essentially burned to the ground and is now a pile of rubble and ash.

Last night the large fire across the lake from Kelowna began to jump the lake and is now threatening the larger town of Kelowna (population about 130,000) on the east side while it threatens the smaller towns on the west side of the lake.  This is not a small lake, so the fact that the fire has grown to the size that it can leap over the water is, well, concerning would be a major understatement.  This is also not a village but a sizable city with many elderly citizens.  With at least one highway closed, evacuating that many people is going to be challenging - if it should come to that.  So far fire crews have been able to douse the spot fires as they are ignited from the flying flames.

Oliver is now under evacuation alert and I don't think Osoyoos is out of danger yet, either.

Other smaller communities continue to be overwhelmed by smoke and the potential of burning to the ground - or at least sustaining some level of damage.  Many are under evacuation alert, hoping like hell it rains - without further thunder storms to start new fires.

Fire crews are exhausted, sometimes forced to take a break because the smoke is so thick the planes can't fly to drop water or fire retardant, or to evacuate ground fire crews in remote locations.  We are incredibly grateful that firefighters from other countries/locations have come to help.  

Highways north/south are closed and people are scrambling to check alternate routes for safety.  The town of Lytton, burned to the ground two years ago is in the danger zone.  Again.  And they only just this year were able to begin rebuilding.

People are losing their homes, pets, jobs.  So far 4 fire fighters (last I recall) lost their lives fighting fires in Canada.   

I keep hearing the word 'unprecedented'.  Um, excuse me, but the climate science has been warning us for years, decades, in fact, that this *is exactly what to expect* as the climate changes kept accelerating.

We have sown the wind and now we reap the whirlwind.

Long past time to solve climate change.

And while I'm being a 'negative Nellie', covid isn't over either.  If people won't wear a mask against covid, I hope they will at least wear one against the smoke that hangs over us all.

Currently we are in a bubble of 'safety' with no nearby fires, just the smoke that comes and goes with the wind.  We hunker down and stay put, here in relative safety.  

But it isn't just the wildfires.  Hurricane season is beginning and it looks to be developing into a doozy.  Time to address the problem instead of fixing things after the disasters strike?  Unfortunately the problem is complex and most people don't like complexity.  

Climate change is not a 'Canada' problem, it is a world wide problem.  There is no Planet B.