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It Is No Longer Possible to Escape What We Have Done to Ourselves

On the drive to our cottage here in June, my wife and I collided with the dense wall of Canadian wildfire smoke. The clear spring air began turning a sickly orange in the Adirondack Mountains, the sun was reduced to a red spot, and by the time we reached Montreal the skyline was barely visible from across the St. Lawrence River. On that day, June 25, Montreal had the worst air quality in the world.

Up at our lake, we soon learned to track the sheets of smoke online as they swept across Canada, down into the United States and even across the Atlantic Ocean.…  Seguir leyendo »

A police officer walking through a neighborhood destroyed by fire in Fort McMurray, Canada. Credit Rcmp/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

I don't know if my house still exists. I believe it does, for now. The latest reports show 12 homes destroyed in our neighborhood in Fort McMurray, Alberta. They’re trailer homes, on the other side of the main road from us, edging up against the forest. This is oil sands country, and although this is a depressed economy, the trailer homes are worth about $500,000 each. Even in Canadian currency that’s a lot.

I’ve been in Alberta about a decade now. We revel in our cowboy culture here, our Texas-meets-Montana beef-ranching and oil-pumping way of life. When it comes to crises we pride ourselves on being able to manage.…  Seguir leyendo »