A vivid and intense look at Canadian wildfires

“How was your summer?” is a common enough autumnal question. For the residents of Kelowna, B.C. or Yellowknife, N.W.T the answer might well be “Horrific!” People as far afield as northern Quebec, Greece, Spain, Hawaii or the southern parts of the United States could be expected to reply in similar ways. Wildfires appear to be breaking out everywhere. In August, a once-in-every-fifty-year storm dumped a year’s worth of rain in a day on San Bernardino in California. July and August were the hottest months on record worldwide.

In Hamilton, Ontario – where I live – localized complaints of a seasonal nature are likely to be absent or minimal at worst. Sure, we had a couple of smoky, hazy summer days and we had the air conditioning on all night four or five times. The sun shone often enough, though, and rain arrived at regular intervals sufficient to keep the lawn green with only occasional sprinkling. 

Now summer is over. Perhaps some people will watch as parts of our nation’s boreal forest follow a typical pattern of igniting into fall colours and wonder: How real – or how much of an imminent threat is climate change?

If John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather is to be believed, climate change and its impact is all too real indeed. 

Vaillant’s case for change is effectively made by chronicling the massive, devastating fire that broke out in and around Fort McMurray, Alberta in early May of 2016.

The overwhelming and compelling irony at the heart of this narrative is that Canada’s oil country itself is portrayed as both the victim of, and a major cause of, a climate-change-fueled disaster. Vaillant marshals first-person accounts, historical background and scientific data to make his case. He does evince somewhat grudging admiration for the enterprising Albertans who managed to turn their bitumen-laden tar sands into black gold. 

The ultimate results, however, come off to me as the secular equivalent of a hellfire and damnation sermon on climate change. Are we (with apologies to the prophet Amos) “at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1) when it comes to climate concerns? Are we too helpless or unaffected to realize that the planet as a whole is in peril, irrespective of local conditions?

Vaillant may not hold back on the polemic, but he is not without sympathy or empathy for the people of Fort McMurray, who bravely endured the initial disaster and still feel the effects. “Combustive energy had drawn people to Fort McMurray in steadily increasing numbers over the course of a century, and combustive energy was driving them out again, en masse, in a single afternoon,” he writes.

To help the reader fathom the experience of “fire weather,” he also provides several vivid, detailed examples: “Meanwhile, wind-driven embers showered the bumper-to-bumper traffic and the businesses downtown as the firefighters massing at Hall 1 deployed their hoses, not to spray down the surrounding buildings, but to protect their fire trucks and the hall itself – a first for any member of that department.”

The latter chapters of the book cogently summarize the science behind fire, combustion, carbon consumption and climate change. It is a necessary task for the book’s completist author that can seem downright prosaic compared to the first-person stories of the Fort McMurray disaster itself.

Fire Weather also chronicles the attitudes and behaviors of oil industry companies and the scientists in their employ. Somewhat surprising is their candid acknowledgement of pending climate change in the 1970s and 1980s. That changed into public denial of climate change as the financial implications of their initial candor became apparent.

Perhaps a better question than “How real is climate change?” is “How can we steward the energy resources given to all of us to mitigate the effects of climate change on us all?” Management by crisis seems unlikely to suffice. Shoring up coastlines against flooding or adding more fire breaks to the boreal forests could prove helpful but ultimately insufficient.

Paying heed to voices such as John Vaillant’s can be a helpful step – first or otherwise – for those looking to better understand the experiences of climate-related disasters and hoping to find ways to take meaningful action. It is up to us to stay well-informed and keenly motivated as we all work together to care for God’s creation.