This is the worst part. I remember in 2003, BC had what was considered at the time a devastating fire season, with over 130,000 hectares burned. It was so bad that artists came together to create an art book to remember it by, and to sell to raise money for displaced residents. The largest single fire that year was 32,000 hectares.

Then in 2009 there was a 67,000 hectare fire.

Then in 2014 there was a 133,000 hectare fire.

Then in 2017 there was a 545,000 hectare fire, a 241,000 hectare fire, and a 192,000 hectare fire. Over 1.2m hectares total burned. The next year, 1.3m hectares burned. Now that has been exceeded in 2023, and the season is only half over.

Just think about it. In 2003, we couldn't possibly imagine worse destruction than 130,000 hectares burned. And now we're easily exceeding ten times that area year after year.

Look at how bad it is now, and imagine how much worse it's going to get. The drought is only getting worse. Western red cedars have all started dying in some areas. The destruction the Interior saw as a result of the Mountain Pine Beetle will come to the south: the most populated area of the province, and the area with the fewest ways to evacuate, as it is locked between the border to the south, mountains to the north, and the ocean to the west.

The losses will be immense.

Canada is big enough that, as bad as it is right now, most of us are still just doing our regular <cough, cough> lives. Until autumn comes around and the fires abate.

Or, specifically, “we’re steadfastly continuing to feed the global machine that greases the wheels of climate change….”