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EDITORIAL: Sparking change

We can no longer claim not to have been warned. Climate change means drier summers and more wildfires on the West Coast. Metro Vancouver issued an air quality advisory over the weekend while crews worked to contain a wildfire in Richmond.
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We can no longer claim not to have been warned. Climate change means drier summers and more wildfires on the West Coast. Metro Vancouver issued an air quality advisory over the weekend while crews worked to contain a wildfire in Richmond.

For most, the annual smell of smoke in the air and taste of soot in our mouths is an inconvenience but if you’ve got respiratory difficulties, it’s a real threat.

While a wildfire will gladly consume anything in its path, we have had, thankfully, very few fatalities in B.C. over the years. That’s something we owe to evacuation efforts by the authorities in the fire-plagued Interior but also a cultural appreciation by people there for the gravity of the risk fires present.

Here on Lower Mainland though, it’s time we realized the same risk. Across Deep Cove, Blueridge, Lynn Valley, Upper Delbrook, Grousewoods, the British Properties, Upper Caulfeild, and Horseshoe Bay, we have nearly 50 kilometres of neighbourhoods that interface with forests where thousands of people go to recreate at the driest times of the year.

Almost all of the dozens of brush fires our three fire departments are called to douse each summer are caused by humans, and discarded “smoking material” is the likely culprit. We could suggest higher fines for people getting high on the trails or jacking up tobacco taxes but what we really need is an appreciation for the risk we face at a cultural level.

That means no longer accepting people smoking in areas where they should not be. If you see someone throwing cigarette butts or roaches on the ground, stomp on them good. (And then do something about the cigarette butts and roaches.)

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