[News] Canadian wildfires

jcdenton08 said:

Jasper wildfires: 'Monster' wildfire devastates historic Canadian resort town

Up to half of the tourist town of Jasper may have been destroyed, with its mayor saying the area is facing its "worst nightmare".

www.bbc.co.uk

25,000 evacuated, 30-50% of buildings estimated destroyed, much higher damaged. Thousands of square miles of forest and woodland incinerated. Will take weeks to bring the fires under control, and even longer to extinguish.

My other half is in Kamloops, BC (about four hours drive away) and on the night the fires started there was a massive and terrifying lightning storm. Only minor fires in Kamloops thankfully, but absolute tragedy happening in Jasper National Park.

She was having a full blown panic attack though as her childhood home in another turn further north previously burned down after a direct lightning strike.

Thoughts and prayers to anyone in the region or those with loved ones in the region.

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CliveWalkerWingWizard said:

Terrible news, I was there this time last year, an absolutely beautiful place with beautiful people. Unfortunately it will take decades to recover.

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nordicgod said:

Was only there a few weeks ago drove from Vancouver to Calgary via kamloops, Salmon arm, Revelstoke and Golden, then met Canadian friends who tools us to Banff and jasper and went out camping for a couple of nights in the national parks, fire risk was low so was allowed camp fires . Driving over the Rockies I said it’s was like the Lake District on steroids. Absolutely Terrible to see what has happened just a few weeks later though as the temperature got up the homes destroyed and the lost of wildlife . Nature is resilient and everywhere you go it’s sprouting up from last years terrible wildfires .

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dazzer6666 said:

Spent over 3 weeks in Ontario and BC last year, absolutely love BC and Vancouver Island in particular. So sad to see this but after the last years would have thought they might have done more to try to prevent/limit this

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jcdenton08 said:

I’m not sure what more can be done, though. They use fire planes and fire retardant year round, but taking Jasper National Park alone there is 4,200 square miles of tinderbox dry forest just waiting for a spark. Trying to cover the 350 million hectares of forest in Canada in flame retardant is folly.

They’ve done loads in educating people about discarded cigarettes, bonfires, barbecue safety etc - but one massive lightning storm can set off hundreds of simultaneous wildfires which are quite literally impossible to control.

They’ve brought in hundreds of overseas firefighters, but tragedies like these are inevitable. The only relief being that there are no reported lost lives.

View attachment 186080

Every dot shown is a fire, every red dot is an out of control fire, and that screenshot only covers some of BC and a bit of Alberta. It’s insanity every year.

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Goldstone Guy said:

How about we stop burning fossil fuels?

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jcdenton08 said:

Jasper wildfires: 'Monster' wildfire devastates historic Canadian resort town

Up to half of the tourist town of Jasper may have been destroyed, with its mayor saying the area is facing its "worst nightmare".

www.bbc.co.uk

25,000 evacuated, 30-50% of buildings estimated destroyed, much higher damaged. Thousands of square miles of forest and woodland incinerated. Will take weeks to bring the fires under control, and even longer to extinguish.

My other half is in Kamloops, BC (about four hours drive away) and on the night the fires started there was a massive and terrifying lightning storm. Only minor fires in Kamloops thankfully, but absolute tragedy happening in Jasper National Park.

She was having a full blown panic attack though as her childhood home in another turn further north previously burned down after a direct lightning strike.

Thoughts and prayers to anyone in the region or those with loved ones in the region.

Click to expand...

nordicgod said:

Was only there a few weeks ago drove from Vancouver to Calgary via kamloops, Salmon arm, Revelstoke and Golden, then met Canadian friends who tools us to Banff and jasper and went out camping for a couple of nights in the national parks, fire risk was low so was allowed camp fires . Driving over the Rockies I said it’s was like the Lake District on steroids. Absolutely Terrible to see what has happened just a few weeks later though as the temperature got up the homes destroyed and the lost of wildlife . Nature is resilient and everywhere you go it’s sprouting up from last years terrible wildfires .

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jcdenton08 said:

Fantastic idea. Moving forward, how do we replace the 80% of energy needs that fossil fuels provide, in a timely and cost realistic way?

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raymondo said:

If the planet wants to save itself then it needs to accept:
- a thumping reduction in production and consumption
- a thumping drop in living standards
- a thumping change in employment
- a thumping reduction in heating and aircon use
....(I dunno, something like that)
But most people won't, most "leaders" won't, so at some point, the planet is fycked.

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jcdenton08 said:

Agree, perhaps swap “planet” for “humanity”

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raymondo said:

Yeah, agreed .
I mean...humanity will survive in some form, especially in some regions, and for a long time yet...but wouldn't it be great if we planned and actioned our way out of the worst of the threat rather than continuing to race headlong into it .

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jcdenton08 said:

It absolutely would. I think my point was more that I’d rather not score political points over what is a tragic situation for many people about climate change - a cause I am fully behind and have taken actual demonstrable change about.

Canadian wildfires have been a thing since recorded settlement, and even further back in First Nations peoples writings. Millions of acres have burnt since records began in 1825 - to solely blame climate change is not only misleading, it’s downright incorrect.

That said, it is playing a part according to most scientists.

The issue was helpfully summarised by your bullet points, namely that simply replacing energy usage with green alternatives is simply not feasible in our lifetimes. Hard sacrifices would have to be made, and this is something that many people - even hardcore green energy campaigners - often fail to grasp.

Replacing like-for-like the 80% of energy produced by fossil fuels is not going to be possible in our lifetimes. Big sacrifices would have to be made, with a massive knock on to the worldwide economic stability through likely billions of job losses.

It would be a hard reset for humanity. No cars, no mass production - essentially a new dark age. Humanity will die out before that happened.

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