Canada is still burning. At home, in Queensland’s Western Downs, firefighters have already been battling blazes of an intensity rarely seen so early in the season.
After decades of confronting devastating bushfires head on, I know both events are demonstrations of our dangerously changing climate. Sadly, Canada is experiencing its own Black Summer moment.
Hundreds of blazes are burning during Canada’s worst wildfire season on record – many of them still out of control, sending massive plumes of smoke into the atmosphere. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate. Its impacts have been far-reaching. Weeks after New York was shrouded with familiar scenes of hazy, orange skies, citizens of Chicago and Detroit are currently suffering the worst air quality in the world.
Canadian firies were here for us during our Black Summer. In a show of solidarity, more than 400 Australian firefighters are now working hand-in-hand with local teams to battle the monster fires there. Like us, the rolling news coverage of towering flames and days turned to night by acrid smoke is now engraved in Canada’s national psyche.
We know this harrowing reality of a national emergency, but with one key difference: Canada is already applying lessons learnt from this unnatural disaster. The Canadian government is making moves to end fossil fuel subsidies.
Like Canada, Australia is well and truly in the firing line of more frequent and severe extreme weather events driven by the burning of fossil fuels. With a pending “super El Nino” on the cards, we could soon see a bushfire season on steroids.
Increased fuel loads from a rare protracted La Nina has turned Australia into a powder keg ready to combust. Yet our governments continue to offer billions in subsidies for polluting fossil fuels – the root cause of worsening climate change.