Tag Archives: 2025 Wildfires

Cost of Climate Change

Happy New Year Humanity – The Quadra Project

When the outside world is too disturbing to confront, people seek
relief through the vicarious safety of fantasy. This explains why 2025
was a banner year for horror movies. J.G. Ballard, an English novelist
and essayist, noted that, “The ultimate dystopia is the inside of
one’s own head.” Dr. Coltan Scrivner, a behavioural scientist agrees.
“You walk around with your mask of tranquillity, but inside your mind
is a maze of worries. Horror allows you to take off your mask.” (The
Guardian Weekly, Editorial, Oct. 24, 2025.) So with this genre of
movie you get to experience horror, but not the real kind that you
might be reluctant to confront.

As we mark the beginning of 2026, we are one quarter of our way
through the 21st century and are coming closer to the haunting
forecasts of climate catastrophe by the end of the century, if we do
not reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. So a review of 2025 seems
appropriate.

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Cost of Climate Change, Disaster

Driving through Canadian Wildfires: A Cross-Country Journey Amid the Smoke

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As of August 7, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported that wildfires have consumed more than 7.1 million hectares. There is a broad belt of fires stretching from Northern Alberta to Western Ontario (image below). 

Driving across Canada in mid to late May, we played tag with the smoke and its acrid scent all the way from the Saskatchewan border to Newfoundland. It wasn’t as bad as the news sometimes made it sound. There were days of bright, clear skies, as well as others when a fog-like haze settled across the landscape. The flames may have come within three kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Kenora, but we didn’t see them. The road remained open, although several side roads were blocked. The smoke, however, spread much farther. We saw a pink sun as far east as Corner Brook, Newfoundland, on May 28.

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Cost of Climate Change, Tourism

Should We Still Travel? Reflections from a Warming Canada

In response to people who do not believe climate change is a real issue—and to those who think we should eliminate all long-distance tourism. 

A Personal Journey Amid Crisis

I am in the midst of my third trip across Canada.

We are living in a society that appears to be critically damaging the lives of future generations through a combination of overconsumption and the overproduction of greenhouse gases. This is not just a policy issue—it’s a moral one. I see the signs of global warming all around me—and they are getting worse.

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Cost of Climate Change, Environment

Canada’s northern wildfires projected to slow global warming — at a high cost

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The climate-driven wildfires currently razing Canada’s northern forests and darkening skies across the continent may have an unexpected effect: according to a new study, the fires may reduce global warming and sea ice melt in the Arctic.

The rising impact of blazes in Canada and Siberia’s boreal regions over the next 35 years will slow warming by 12 per cent globally and 38 per cent in the Arctic, according to recent climate modelling research at the University of Washington (UW). But the study’s authors warn that while the study may sound positive, it’s just one part of a trend that overall spells major trouble for northern ecosystems. 

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Disaster, Uncategorized

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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