Catastrophe, compassion, complicity and climate change

A week ago I wrote about the need to engage in storytelling about climate change. The last few days we have been able to watch a tragic story unfold in real time at Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. A whole town was forced to flee, almost 100,000 inhabitants on the run from a raging wildfire that jumped rivers and torched houses. People had to abandon their homes in minutes, leaving memories and possession behind, some seeing their house go up in flames in the rear view mirror. And still the fire is growing. 

Despite the dire situation and with the combination of hard work from first responders and likely a lot of luck, no lives seems to have been lost in fire evacuation. The people of Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities will need both practical help and compassion for days, weeks, months and maybe years to come. That is the immediate task and it is heartwarming to see how people in Alberta and all of Canada are coming to assistance.

Those living in the area have no personal responsibly for the fire and they are now in the difficult situation of finding ways to restart their lives. However, feeling compassion for them and supporting them does not exclude the need to start talking about the bigger picture and looking for root causes. As Eric Holthaus puts it: "Talking about climate change during an ongoing disaster like Fort McMurray is absolutely necessary”. 

Many then claim that now it not the time, or that this specific event can not be attributed to climate change. But like John Dupuis writes  "Every time we forget about how the short and medium term turn into the long term, one day and month and year at a time, one climate-change-related disaster at a time, we are letting ourselves off the hook in using the focus and attention to build longer term solutions”. Global warming and climate disruption are parts of the bigger picture that are contributing to the catastrophe in Alberta. Globally were are now in the 12th month in a row setting temperature records. In the Alberta region, temperatures have been way over normal this spring. To some extent this is an El Nino phenomena but the long term warming is driven by man made climate change. And the warmest place on the planet in relation to normal so far this month is right over northern Alberta. 

It's not only heat, it's the early melting of the snow cover that leaves the land and trees susceptible. Of course fires is nothing new in this part of the world, since boreal forests need to burn and they do from time to time due to natural reasons like lightning. If forests are over protected because there is not enough room to let them burn or they are deemed too valuable for land owners, they will end up like tinder boxes.  

It is unlikely that fossil fuels will drive the economy on a viable planet. Even a country such as Saudi Arabia is starting to see that the fossil fuel era is coming to an end. If we are serious about addressing global warming it will affect us all. Alberta is at the heart of the Canadian tar sands development. Alberta has built it’s economy on oil, but oil prices have dropped and the Alberta government have been forced to cut spending on fire prevention.  

We are all to varying degrees dependant on fossil fuels but some will be more affected. If fossil fuels becomes a stranded asset, it is not the people of Fort McMurray that should take the full responsibility for getting out of the tar sands, it is up to the political leaders of Canada and other countries of the world. Continuing to extract the tar sands will likely lead to more fires in Canada, but the biggest victims will be found in other parts of world, far from media cover, where people will struggle to stay on top of the rising water.  

So we need new stories. We need new fossil free business stories like the ones Elon Musk is telling. We need new political stories, but the field is still wide open here. We need new stories from philosophers, writers, poets, engineers, forest workers and everybody else. For some people, the story needs to come from faith leaders like the Pope or muslim scholars. 

All in all we need stories that combines change, determination and possibilities. If not, the story of today will turn even darker: "Each month as I write these dispatches, I shake my head in disbelief at the rapidity at which anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) is occurring. It's as though each month I think, "It can't possibly keep happening at this incredible pace.” But it does”. 

I am convinced that the strength and compassion shown to the fire refugees from Alberta can be channeled into a new story. 

Post Script 

Some commenters on social media claim that only Canadians or Albertans should be allowed to discuss the ongoing fires. But climate change and fires is not exclusive to Canada. Also in Russia fires are having a devastating effect on the forests. In Sweden, a forest fire two years ago took 4 months to extinguish, not until the snow fell did the fire finally stop. That was after an unusually warm and dry summer and even here, forest fires are ongoing today. 

 On the personal level, while my carbon footprint still is far from zero, it is going down. That depends on my choice of travel, my use of energy, my food habits, my level of consumption and more. That will not change the world, but it is hard to demand change from others if I am not willing to walk my talk.