We, the Boiling Frogs

 

As we await today’s BC budget reveal, some may be thinking our NDP led BC government has been smoking to much of the province’s exceptional weed after Finance Minister Selina Robinson announced the B.C. budget wouldfocus on climate change, including year-round wildfire service. However the data clearly shows it is time to change the way we manage forest fires.

In the 1990s, wildfires burned an average of 29,000 hectares per year.
In the aughts, it had risen to 98,500.
In the 2010s, the average area consumed per year by wildfires jumped to 381,000, including a spectacular 1.35 million hectares in 2018.

In 2021, 868,203 hectares burned, including the entire town of Lytton.

Our first worldwide climate agreement was Kyoto in 1992. We have done little to change our practices. We are the proverbial frogs in a pot of boiling water, grinning foolishly as we wander into catastrophe.

There are tools available to help us change direction, we all need to take up the challenge.