Fire is the only thing that can stop Canadian fossil fuels

On Wednesday morning, as many Canadians turned their faces to the welcome warmth of spring sunshine, others were hard-pressed to see any sun at all. In Calgary, one of my colleagues cancelled her morning dog walk; smoke from Alberta fires was so thick, people were being warned to stay indoors.

As I write, places in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan hold 17 of the top 50 spots on the list of world cities with the worst air pollution. Yorkton, Sask., was the unenviable number 1, with Red Deer, Calgary and Edmonton not so far behind. Here in Vancouver, we’re being told the winds will shift, bringing smoke from fires in the north and Interior with it. We’re steeled to kiss our fresh spring air goodbye.

It bears repeating: this is the new normal. Summer, the season we northerners pine for during the dark winter months, is being ruined in huge swaths of the country by fires that explode the minute the temperatures rise.

Now that’s an admittedly selfish take from someone who lives in the middle of a big city where there is no actual danger save for bad air. In Alberta, where homes have already burned down and people are displaced, the consequences are more dire. And it’s only May. Fire season, which used to be a midsummer problem, now routinely stretches from May to October.

It’s worth noting the irony that the Alberta fires have forced some oil and gas companies to temporarily cease production — emphasis on temporary. Catastrophic fires seem to be the only thing able to staunch the flow of fossil fuels from Canadian soil.

The end of fossil fuels is certainly not being promoted by oil companies whose lobbyists flood the halls of Parliament Hill with hands out, pushing for oil-friendly policies and tax credits to help them to keep pumping while maintaining their current record profits.

Their efforts are successful. The federal government has made it clear there are no plans to dial back the pace of Canadian oil and gas production. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on record saying there is room for the sector to grow while meeting our climate targets.

The feds justify this position — which sounds like a logic-defying oxymoron — by insisting it will all work out so long as oil companies employ carbon capture technology to reduce emissions during the production phase. This ignores, of course, the greenhouse gases responsible for global heating that arise when the oil and gas we export is burned.

There is a tendency in the West to downplay the impact of climate change, to see it as something that affects others. And it’s true the impact will be greatest on small island nations at risk of disappearing beneath rising seas or countries with hot climates already bordering on extreme. It’s also true the worst effects of climate change here at home are felt in sparsely populated parts of the country where a disproportionate number of residents caught in the climate-crosshairs are Indigenous.

But when Canadians start dropping dead of heat exhaustion in their homes in the city, far from the fires, it sinks in how connected and dependent we are on our natural surroundings. And when smoke from acres of burning forests blows into town, making a run or outdoor swim an unhealthy pastime, it reminds us that all the wondrous technology that protects us from so much is not enough to keep us healthy and safe.

So where do we go from here, given the conditions for huge fires are already in place? There may be forest management techniques that can mitigate spread: strategic cuts, controlled burns and an end to monoculture reforestation that makes trees more likely to burn.

But the only real, lasting solution is to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which means winding down the production of fossil fuels. Climate change is not just playing havoc in faraway places like Lerma, Mexico; Watford City, U.S.A.; or Abohar, India — cities also suffering under terrible air quality at the moment.

It’s happening here. It’s happening now. We may not be able to dial it back, but we know how to stop it from worsening. We just need to get the job done.