Many British Columbians probably spent the past few summers hoping that a particular wildfire season was just an “off” year and next summer would be “back to normal.”
This summer, however, feels like a reckoning of sorts.
As wildfires rage across large parts of the province – as well as U.S. states to the south – we’ve been forced to confront the idea that this appears to be our new “normal.”
Traditionally, August would bring our hottest weather. This year, a once-in-a-lifetime “heat dome” of extreme temperatures at the end of June sped up and exacerbated what was already a troubling trend. Wildfires – which would at one time in the past flare up once or twice in the hottest parts of August – have been disturbingly constant in B.C.
Large swaths of the vacationing public – who would have traditionally headed for the lakes of the Interior – found themselves instead heading west, with many left sitting in baking ferry line-ups like the one out of Horseshoe Bay this past weekend.
Like those people, we all want to find “somewhere else” where there’s no smoke, no fires, no extremes and danger.
The larger problem is that “somewhere else” is becoming harder and harder to find.
Wildfires aren’t restricted to B.C.’s Interior. They’re burning across the U.S. too, and in Greece. Smoke respects no international borders. Climate change and its impacts on extreme weather are being felt everywhere. This summer feels like a tipping point – a terrible reminder that we are all in this together and we must do better – to prepare, to adapt, to change what we can.
If every “somewhere else” is ruined, we’ve got nowhere left to go.
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