If such cravenly political behaviour seems reckless for a so-called leader charged with communicating effectively during what is proving to be a serious crisis, well, it is. Oh, and speaking of combustion, how about Alberta’s premier Danielle Smith? A political dumpster fire of comedic proportions-one whose personal vendettas and Libertarian leanings saw her fail to reach out or coordinate with the feds to deal with the fires in a timely manner, bizarrely delay evacuation orders, preferentially inform United Conservative Party supporters of the impending provincial emergency she would declare, mismanage emergency funds already reduced by UCP austerity, and mire herself in rhetorical controversies via leaked videos on everything from criminal street preachers to likening Albertans who followed COVID mandates to Nazis.Īmazingly, all this populated the news in the same week, and adds up to a disquieting optic: a premier who clearly values the loyalty of her base over the safety of Albertans. More so given that the industrial base of northern Alberta is given over to mining a substance (bitumen) that, when converted by fire to a burnable energy form (oil), contributes to the very conditions now causing so much environmental and property damage. Given the hot, dry, climate-exacerbated conditions under which these fires are occurring, it’s clear that folks in the region have been playing with fire-both literally and figuratively. Applying basic math for the 200-plus still “under investigation,” it’s easy to conclude these will mostly be attributed to humans as well. Especially when the suspected cause of only a handful are lightning, with ~220 known to be caused by humans. ![]() That basically means from April until now. ![]() As of May 15, with another +10 C spring temperature anomaly underway in northern Alberta, the province’s Wildfire Status Dashboard was showing 87 active wildfires-25 listed as out of control-of the 467 sparked to life so far in 2023.
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