I remember that going camping when I was a kid growing up in Newfoundland in the summer months was typically a wet experience.
The province, which is stuck out into the middle of the North Atlantic, is well known for its cool temperatures, which rarely got above 23C on a good day, and the rainy, foggy weather we experienced each summer.
We used to have to take dry tinder with us for each camping trip because the wood in the forests (where the trees are considerably smaller than here I might add) was usually much too damp to start a fire, and even with the dry tinder, it was still often a difficult process to get a flame going. As well, you always had to be careful when in the woods collecting what you’d hope to be firewood because the forest floors were mostly boggy and you’d easily find yourself up to your ankles, if not your knees, in mucky water.
One thing is for certain, there were rarely ever any forest fires in Newfoundland in those days, and I don’t recall any of real consequence in my decades living in the province. Everything was simply too wet for that to happen, and I don’t think there was ever any need for a fire ban.
But all that has dramatically changed it seems, with out-of-control wildfires ravaging the island this summer that have sent thousands of people fleeing from their homes to government-run shelters in the hope that they will be able to return to unscathed houses at some point.
But for many, that dream has already been dashed as the fires race through the forests and communities, aided by high winds from the North Atlantic that the province is also notorious for.
Even thousands of people in my hometown of St. John’s are on evacuation alert and the city, which is usually covered in a fog bank at this time of year, is now covered with smoke instead from the nearby wildfires as temperatures soar up to 35C, which was also unheard of when I lived there decades ago.
Apparently, those soaking wet forests that I grew up with have changed considerably, and I would be more than happy to put up with hard-to-light fires and soaking feet instead of what’s taking place there these days.
And, as well know, there are also out-of-control wildfires currently roaring across most areas of Canada, including ones close to the Cowichan Valley.
On Aug. 12, the Cowichan Valley Regional District issued a State of Local Emergency and an evacuation order for several properties within Electoral Area F (Honeymoon Bay, Mesachie Lake, Caycuse) and Electoral Area I (Meade Creek, Youbou) in response to the massive Mount Underwood wildfire, which was located about 12km south of Port Alberni at the time and spreading fast.
While driving north up the Trans-Canada Highway that day, I saw the dark, orange smoke drifting in to eastern Vancouver Island from that blaze in great clouds and it was frightening to watch.
That’s just one in the approximately 90 wildfires that were burning across the province at the time.
I’ve been living on Vancouver Island for more than 30 years now and I have never seen anything like this.
Like Newfoundland, there were always some isolated wildfires here each summer years ago, but what’s happening now is unprecedented. I’m no climate scientist, nor do I pretend to be, but, undoubtedly, something dramatic has changed in the climate that is at the root of the increasingly dry and hot weather that is causing this firestorm each summer right across the country, and the globe.
I’ve often heard people say that climate change is brought on by the natural cycles that Earth periodically goes through and has nothing to do with human activity, while others claim that it’s caused by humans and our overuse of fossil fuels to power our society that is adding an exorbitant amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and warming the planet.
Whatever is causing it, the world around us is changing dramatically, climatically speaking, and not for the better.
We need to stop arguing about what’s causing it and work together to see what, if anything, can be done to improve the situation before everything around us burns to the ground.
