Tag Archives: 2024 wildfires

Disaster

In a world on fire, making the case for burning more

Matt Simmons – The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

A cold spring rain spatters the deck outside a small coffee shop in Smithers, B.C., as Kevin Kriese explains why he believes people need to change how they think about wildfire. 

A former assistant deputy minister with the provincial government and recently retired chair of the B.C. Forest Practices Board, Kriese is now a senior wildfire analyst with the POLIS wildfire resilience project. He’s tall and athletic (an avid skier) and a passionate advocate for land-based solutions to ecological challenges. He speaks with the confidence of someone who has spent his entire career navigating seemingly intractable problems — but admits getting people on board with the idea of living with more fire on the land is no easy task.

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Cost of Climate Change

Pemberton’s six big moves on climate change, three years in

By Luke Faulkes, Pique Magazine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On March 15, 2022, the Village of Pemberton (VOP) declared a climate emergency in response to a local youth-led climate action petition. The declaration, though largely symbolic, detailed the human and financial costs of letting climate change run rampant. The Village has seen devastating flooding and forest fires in the years since.

“The impacts of climate change are obvious,” said Pemberton Mayor Mike Richman. “[The declaration] gave us something to rally around.”

Directly following the declaration, the Village of Pemberton published a Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP), which charts a path towards net-zero emissions by 2050 through six “big moves.”

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Cost of Climate Change, Fire

3 things you need to know about wildfires in BC

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Wildfire season is never really over. 

When infernos subside in one region, they begin somewhere else. As the world continues to heat up and the climate changes, forested areas like British Columbia will experience greater wildfire impacts year-round, including on the physical and mental health of frontline firefighters.

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Fire

Burning out: B.C. wildfire fighters share stories from the frontlines

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By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

“It’s like someone turned the fire switch on and it’s just not stopping.”

That’s what wildfire ecologist Kira Hoffman told me in November, as we discussed our new wildfire reality. I can’t help but think back to that conversation today, as we watch the out-of-control blazes burn Los Angeles, putting at least 180,000 residents under evacuation orders and engulfing entire neighbourhoods in the second-largest U.S. city. It’s all happening in January, a month that should have brought some rain to southern California; instead, the region is drought-stricken and bone dry.

It points to an uncomfortable reality: we need to be thinking about wildfires year-round, and not just when fires are actively burning where we live.

Continue reading Burning out: B.C. wildfire fighters share stories from the frontlines →