In the first half of this rant, the American/Canadian journalist documents in excruciating detail the massive wildfire that largely destroyed the city of Fort McMurray in 1917. Using the recollections of many people who experienced it, it was unprecedented at the time. He also details the background of the huge tar sands development extracting bitumen, covering many square miles from the green land, replacing it with a toxic wasteland. This had the enthusiastic support of the Bible-thumping Alberta premier, Ernest C. Manning, whose weekly radio broadcast Back to the Bible Hour I was subjected to for years as a child. Then he documents similar fires in Great Slave Lake and in Chisholm and similar fire in Australia. Tasmania and Greenland have experienced wildfires for the first time in the last few years.
There is a distinctly pessimistic and alarmist tone to this part, claiming for example, that the latter, at it’s peak, released more energy to the atmosphere and stratosphere per minute than did the Hiroshima bomb, and producing hurricanes. But perhaps we need to be alarmed to take appropriate action.
Then he steps back to reflect on mankind’s relationship to fire from its discovery and controlled use. What I found most interesting was that there were prescient warnings about the devastating effects of climate change as early as the 1950s, and those were acknowledged by such conservative politicians as Ronald Regan. But government support for the fossil fuel industry has continued apace. Our federal government spent $450 million to buy out the Kinder Morgan pipeline, while recognizing that the extraction from bitumen is the most inefficient and toxic means of obtaining crude oil. It ranks near the last of the OECD nations to divest from this industry, even while also recognizing that renewables, have been shown to be economically and environmentally cheaper and cleaner and providing some limited support. Many investment companies are now divesting themselves from the tar sands in particular and fossil fuels in general. But is it too little too late?
In many ways alarming, this is nevertheless an important work.
8.5/10.
Thanks, Jackie.
The Passionate Reader 