For many in Fort Mac, life is returning to some semblance of normalcy after wildfires that at their peak spanned more than 500,000 hectares ripped through the city. Air quality warnings that had been in place since “the beast” broke out all around the oil town in early May have been lifted.
But the lingering effects from smoke and toxic may continue for years to come.
Besides the 2,400 structures incinerated by the blaze, up to 2,000 residents with homes left standing are still unable to return because of the affects of ash laced with hazardous dioxins, furans and heavy metals. Officials have issued a warning that: “Air, soil and water testing of affected areas has confirmed the presence of chemicals that are a risk if residents are exposed to them.”
Other carcinogens from the fire, meanwhile, are weaving their way through charred forests, and being carried across contaminated riverbeds and waterways and into the local drinking water supply. Sediment spiked with heavy metals have been overloading water filtration systems downstream. A boil water advisory remains in affect for a dozen neighborhoods in the city of 90,000.
The Canadian Water Network says contaminants caused by wildfires can be carried tens of thousands of kilometres and take years to clear out entirely. “In some instances, the effects of wildfires on water resources and drinking water supplies specifically can be catastrophic and long-lasting,” says CWN. An issue, the group adds, that’s been seriously exacerbated by climate change and the global jump in “mega-fires” like Fort Mac’s.
For a while there, Canadians couldn’t even say the words climate change and Fort Mac in the same sentence. “The worry was that we and others would be seen blaming the people of Fort Mac,” says Karen Mahon, national director of Stand (formerly Forest Ethics), one of 10 environmental organizations that signed a statement in support for Fort Mac in the early days of the fire.
“For a long time people would say we can’t prove that any one event is climate related,” says Mahon. “We have to stop saying that. Every event is to some degree climate related. It’s clearly true that we are experiencing more fires and higher temperatures. Every month is hotter than the month before.”
Mahon says the fire that forced an evacuation of the entire city and raised a record $102 million in donations to the Canadian Red Cross, has hopefully shifted our climate consciousness, making Canadians realize that climate change isn’t far away problem. It’s an emergency that’s hitting Canadian cities in the here and now.
As the feds draft the national climate plan due out this fall, “we need to react on that scale,” says Mahon.
Just how prepared Canadian cities are for extreme events has been getting a lot of attention in the fallout from the blaze. The Insurance Bureau of Canada has said the fire will be the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, up to $9 billion for insurers alone, and wagged an accusatory finger at urban planners that have allowed the construction of communities in the line of fire, as well as floods.
“We’ve let far too many people build in far too many of these areas without any thought whatsoever to what happens,” IBC CEO Don Forgeron told a press conference last month.
In June, Canada’s auditor general’s office issued a report, Mitigating the Impacts of Severe Weather, warning that the National Research Council of Canada needs to “incorporate climate change trends into the National Building Code’s structural design provisions, to take into account the expected increase in frequency and severity of weather events that can directly effect buildings.”
The Council promised new building and fire codes better suited to withstand increasingly severe weather. But those aren’t due to kick in until 2020.
Building and fire code revamps are one thing, but has the Fort Mac blaze cooked up enough concern to embolden the PM and friends to take the aggressive steps needed come fall when they announce Canada’s new climate action plan?
Edmonton-based Greenpeace climate campaigner, Mike Hudema, says “there is more room to talk about climate change” in the wake of the wildfires, but notes, “the worrying thing is that climate change isn’t really being talked about. Most of the news coverage has moved onto other issues.
“Unless we get serious about climate change, disasters like the Fort McMurray fire will not only continue to happen but they will increase in frequency, intensity and the damage they cause to the environment and our communities.”
Adds Hudema, “The real question is whether it will increase the climate action ambition of the provincial and federal governments. In order to do our best to keep our communities safe we need to live up to Canada’s Paris climate commitments and speed the transition to a 100 per cent renewable energy economy. Other countries are already on their way and reaping the benefits. It’s time Canada joined them.”
ecoholic@nowtoronto.com | @ecoholicnation
