Premier David Eby and Ministers of British Columbia spent much time in August 18 news conferences. They talked about dealing with wildfires and assisting the tens of thousands of people affected by the province’s hottest ever time for burning.
Politicians spent little time talking about factors that contributed to the current State of Emergency.
A few years ago, with quotes from Stop the Spray BC, CBC reported:
Last year, 12,812 hectares of B.C. forest was sprayed with the herbicide glyphosate. It’s an annual event — a mass extermination of broadleaf trees mandated by the province.
The eradication of trees like aspen and birch on regenerating forest stands is meant to make room for more commercially valuable conifer species like pine and Douglas fir.
But experts say it also removes one of the best natural defences we have against wildfire, at a time when our warming climate is helping make large, destructive fires more and more common.
When aspen and other broadleaves are allowed to flourish, they form “natural fuel breaks” if their leaves are out, according to Lori Daniels, a professor of forest ecology at the University of B.C. That’s why aspen stands are often referred to as “asbestos forests” in wildfire science circles.
…Often, a “candling” wildfire that’s engulfed the crowns of a conifer forest will fall back down to ground level when it hits a clump of aspen.
How B.C. destroys a key natural wildfire defence every year
In 2018, the province’s Auditor General reported that the province would face “increases in extreme weather, rising sea levels, increasing risk of wildfire and flooding, as well as a change in the location of ecosystems and species that live there.” The province’s average temperature had increased faster than the global average throughout the 20th century.
The AG concluded that government activities to prevent wildfires were not sufficient, while local governments and Indigenous communities were hindered by “a lack of financial support, reliable data and knowledge, and policies at the provincial level.”
According to the UN, fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the BC Government continues aggressive measures to promote fossil fuel production.
Government has failed to protect the province from effects of climate change, but BC is setting records for the quantity of dirty thermal coal exports. Additionally, under the BC NDP, the province has managed to increase fossil gas exports by 50 percent.
As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history. Warmer temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of nature. This poses many risks to human beings and all other forms of life on Earth.
Categories: Climate Change, oil and gas
in-sights.ca 
Thanks Norm and commenters, food for thought as always.
I don’t know what it will take to cause enough anger in the electorate to frighten BC politicians into proper climate action, against the fossil fuel industry. You’d think the heat and flood disasters of 2021 would be enough, but they were not.
We can take what individual actions we can, talk about it with people we know, and hope that reaches a critical mass that BC governments must respect?
I have mostly dealt with my family’s three biggest sources of carbon emissions, but there is more to do, and a few people I could maybe influence to do more…
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B.C. continues to aggressively promote the oil and gas industry. Yes, Norm more could be done, but when we think about it, those MLAs are a few while there are about 5 million people in this province. We need to ask what are we doing? Not dam much from what I can see. Those container ships are still lined up off of Vancouver Island with all their imported plastic from China, be it clothing, dishes, junk for dollar stores, etc. Until we stop buying it all, they won’t stop producing it. Just the fuel to move and produce this crap is a problem Of course if it stopped we’d have every rep from every business group complaining how the province was destroying the economy and putting small business out of business.
We over consume. Every time a larger t.v. comes on market, people buy them. How does that help the enviornment.? I’ve had two T.V.s which lasted 18 years each. Current one, its about 9 years old. When a new celll phone hits the market there are line ups outside stores to purchase them. The first cell phone I purchased was in 1996. I’ve owned 4 of them todate.
Every one can do something to help with the enviornment. I chose to not buy a lot of electronics and vehicles
The business model used in this country and others is based on paying workers wages less than the poverty line and selling items which are made over seas. When ever we hear the government wants to tax something or taxes on carbon are going up we have chamber of commerce and industry people flapping their gums, double time, telling us the economy will collaspe and small business owners will starve, etc. Lets get a grip. If you can’t pay your workers a living wage, you have a hobby at the expense of others. If you can’t afford to sell well made merchandise, you are in the wrong business.
the feds are also contributing to the problem. they permit imports of items which are low quality and cost, forcing Canadian manufacturers out of business. I’ve been watching that one play out since the 1950s.
Most of us have believed that climate change impacts people in other parts of the world, not us. Well that has changed but we didn’t care about other countries and its not like we care that much about our own. we are not making changes. Right now its the government’s job to deal with the fires, preaching about other things will be a waste of time and effort. People aren’t going to change. We are burning all over the place. as the Washington Post reported today, the fires in B.C. are the size of Alabama. Now in a few weeks kids are going back to school. The amount of products sold will wind up in the dump and have caused more problems for the enviornment and then we will have Christmas. OMG, yes its what retailers rely on to make a decent profit, but the environment. No one ever talks about consumerism and the enviornment during the hallmarke festive occassions. We purchase all sorts of things for all sorts of people which really are quite useless. Packages of perfume, make up, cheap clothes, etc. Every year after Christmas I always am just amazed by the amount of stuff in the garbage cans. The government ks never going to be able to deal with that, only we the consuming taxpayers are.
In the meantime people bitch and complain about people living in recreational vehicles at truck stops because they can’t afford housing and there isn’t much of that available. B ut if the government wants to spend money on that by raising taxes, we will hear from the boards of trade, corporate talking heads, etc.
I’d say I need a drink but ice cream will have to do and yes its made here on the Island.
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Oh, yes it would be so nice to have those Mars water bombers here now, but they moved to Australia. Seeing the helicopters and small planes dropping water just make me want to scream. when I was much younger I’d see those water bombers on Sproat Lake. They were amazing.
Now as I understand it and it has been alleged that when it came time to renew the contract with Carlson, Christy Clark wasn’t keen to because the two had had an argument or a difference of opinion. She announced B.C. would be purchasing smaller planes which were better suited for our mountain enviornment. Carlson had been operating during fire season in Australia for a number of years already, so he being out of business in B.C. he moved the rest of the operation to australia where they make use of his expertise and planes. The Mars water bombers are quite old and I read somehwere the firm had purchased older 747s or something like that and were converting them to water bombers. They are used in various parts of the world to fight fires, just not in B.C.
Recall reading about it in either the MSpress or a blog, but there wasn’t much about it at the time.
Some of the forest fires in Canada right now are so large, Mars water bomber type planes are what is needed.
Many will complain the current government isn’t doing enough to deal with the forest fires. I’m sure we will hear from B.C. United about how they could do a better job. Well some of those who sit as B.C. United sat as B.C. Lieberals when Christie made her decision to not renew the contract with the Mars water bombers. When Kelowna had its first big fire, the provincial government seemed to be missing in action, Gordon el gordo Campbell. It seemed like the Kelowna Fire Chief was doing it all with their deptartment and the assistance of other departments. There was criticism of el gordo after the fact, so he comissioned a “study” by a former premier of one of the praire provinces, who was also an engineer. I’ve read parts of the report and it was good. It made a number of suggestions which weren’t ever really followed. Seemed to me after that man’s hard work, the document was shelved.
That is the best of my recollections of those times.
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Here is a kicker in this wildfire fiasco. Do not be surprised to see
more agressive lobbying by timber harvesting companies to increase
logging volumes and to include old growth forest tracts. The companies
rationalize this request because of the risk $$ to wildfires having first
access to the timber. Remember the pine beetle war drum?
But in the end the big answer to ‘what do we do to get effective
change’ still remains unanswered and forestry and oil and gas
are quite happy that it remains that way
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Watching the news conference I was struck by the number of times I heard ‘stay calm, stay alert, stay prepared’ but not once was there a suggestion that we should all be out there on the front lines stopping the fossil fuel infrastructure expansion. A state of numb emergency.
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Staying calm, stay alert, stay prepared it about all most people can do. If they don’t things could get dangerous. As to having non fire figjhters participate in fire fighting in these situations, its a ssure way to get killed. The average person is not prepared either phyiscally or mentally to do this work. They don’t have the equipment, etc. We don’t need a bunch of inexperienced fire fighters getting killed or horribly burned.
In Australia the majority of those fighting bush fires are volunteers, but they are training and equiped, especialy those living in rural areas, but they’ve had decades to get their act together.
There are people who protest the fossil fuel industry, but the professional talking heads who work for the corporations, have more money and more access.
The best way to get rid of the fossil fuel industry is to stop giving them tax breaks, etc. and start taxing them.
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RanD
Plagiarism at it’s finest . Bonnie Henry should sue.
Wasn’t that her 3 three theme shout out for covid?
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The “Eye” has a few friends who work with the forest industry and from what they have told me is that the province was completely unprepared for this fiasco.
Your illuminating the story about culling non revenue wood is just part of the forestry ennui that grips the province.
There is so much environmental malfeasance in this province, that one just cannot begin to comment rationally, lest one just throws up one;’s hands in complete despair.
The one thing echoed over and over again was the failure to ban open fires for the entire year, which would have brought home early the tinderbox this province has become.
So much, so much more, but it also seems Eby was far too busy politicking for his upcoming election, he ignored the drought and the resulting torch BC has become simply because it does not make good 10 second sound bites or photo-ops.
Well, the only photo’s ops for the NDP and Eby’s upcoming election I see now is Kelowna burning.
As an aside, the cliche ridden photo ops of Eby and Ma, yesterday, left me cold. Well scripted and well acted, but nothing more.
And what is the real story behind the Martin Mars water bombers?
Its a mess and as predicted, is ending badly.
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The province has never been ready for any large forest fire. To be prepared costs a lot of money and people don’t want to pay those types of taxes. If you remember the Kelowna fire of 2003, the province seemed to be missing at the time. The Kelowna Fire Chief of the day did an amazing job of organizing. Don’t know when the Chief slept. He did a great job and so did the RCMP and all the fire fighters who worked on the fire. It was the first time I’d ever seen a VFD truck on the highway going to Kelowna. It did look a little out of place, but then a whole lot more from the lower mainland went up also.
Australia has a forest fire model in which most of them are local people who volunteer, are trained and equiped by a government funded entity and are ready to go at a moment’s notice. we do not have the same system here. We can’t even fill all the positions of the local volunteer fire fighters.
How many people do you think would show up if this fall various fire departments asked for volunteers to train for forest fire fighting? In reading about Australia’s method of fighting bush fires, it was clear, without these volunteers, it would be just too costly to fight these fires. They are also defending their own land and here in B.C., its a lot of suburban areas which are burning now. Places no one lived a couple of decades ago.
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