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Some Canadians see the fire as nature lashing back at those who mistreat it in the name of profit. Others see the hard science: a wildfire formed in conditions consistent with climate change striking with academic irony, not vengeance, in a place that helps supply the world with a fossil fuel. The evacuees were really climate refugees, they say. Still others view it as just very bad luck, a setback the oil industry will find a way to overcome. The debate reflects a country wrestling within itself at a difficult moment — and it is testing that famous Canadian civility.
What’s being called the “YMM fire” (YMM being the airport code for Ft. McMurray, AB) is undeniably a tragedy of epic, virtually impossible to fully comprehend scope and dimensions. An entire city of 60,000 has been evacuated, and many, if not most, will return to discover they’ve lost everything. It’s something that, no matter how I might try, I can’t begin to wrap my head around.
As with any tragedy, though, once the initial wave of compassion and human kindness has passed, there’s the inevitable attempts to assign blame and responsibility, to hold someone or something accountable. In Canada, this process has been folded into the long-running, ongoing conflict between those who make their living from extraction industries- such as mining and logging- and environmentalists who view the very existence of Ft. McMurray as symbolic of greed and environmental exploitation.
Some environmentalists have been accused of lecturing to or, worse, condemning people who have lost everything. In Fort McMurray, more than 2,000 structures were consumed by the flames…. “I wish I could kick every person posting ‘That’s what you get for living by the oil sands’ comments,” a young Edmonton woman tweeted Tuesday evening at the peak of the evacuation, when flames were whipping across Highway 63, the only road out of Fort McMurray. “You’re terrible people.”
Yes, climate change is most definitely a contributing factor, but focusing on that just now is really kind of a dick move, knowhutimean? There will most certainly be a time and place for this debate, and while it must happen, now is neither the appropriate time nor place for it.
Trudeau acknowledged that climate change will cause extreme weather events but added, “There have always been fires. There have always been floods. Pointing at any one incident and saying: ‘This is because of that’ is neither helpful, nor entirely accurate. We need to separate a pattern over time from any one event.”
The overwhelming public response to the fire has been sympathy for its victims, and many Canadians have been strikingly kind and generous. People offer to buy lunch for people they have never met. Free water and coffee have been easy to find. Some hotels have lowered their prices or let people stay for free.
A group of recent refugees from Syria has volunteered to help, as has the town of Lac-Megantic in Quebec, which is still recovering from the explosion of an oil train in 2013 that killed more than 40 people and destroyed much of its downtown.
As difficult as it has been to fully grasp the scope and devastation of the tragedy unfolding on Alberta’s tar sands, the decent thing to do would be to assist those in need and leave recriminations for another time. There will be opportunities later for those inclined to debate causality and assign responsibility and blame. Right now, though, with an entire city on the verge of being reduced to so much charcoal, there’s far too much suffering and loss to address.
Thankfully, Canadians have for the most part have stepped in to lend a hand. No one really knows what will happen and/or when, or even if, Ft. McMurray residents will be able to return home.
The fire is expected to grow, potentially doubling in size over the weekend, officials said, though it is moving for now into more remote areas. Substantial rain is the only thing that will stop it, they said, and there is little in the forecast.
Meteorologists had worried for months about the warm winter and spring in this part of Canada’s boreal forest. El Niño brought plenty of rain to the coast but not inland. What snow there was melted early. An early fire season seemed inevitable.
In April, highs near Fort McMurray reached 80 degrees on some days.
Then came May, when temperatures soared more than 30 degrees above average highs for this time of year. The fire started May 1.
The worst part of this tragedy is that it may well be months before residents are allowed to return. Firefighters are unsure when they’ll be able to have any hope of bring the fire under control, and it’s possible that process could take weeks or months.
In the meantime, the wildfires have spread to Alberta’s oil sand production facilities, knocking something on the order of 1 million barrels of oil out of the marketplace. We here in the states will feel the effects of this fire in the form of higher gas prices.
Currently, the fire has grown to about 2000 sq. km.- bigger than the cities of Calgary and Edmonton combined. Alberta- and Canada as a whole- will be dealing with the fire and its aftermath for some time to come. There will be lessons to be taken from this horrific experience, but when the proper time for that will be is anyone’s guess. It certainly won’t be any time soon, not while people are still trying to figure out what happens next…or if they’ll even have a home to return to.
