BentleyAug 2, 2024

🧵#TeachableMoments: #Jasper & All That Smoke

Life comes at you pretty fast these days but when Alberta has a week like last week it's clear that if we don't stop & take stock it'll pass with the typical partisan food fights & nothing learned. That's not good enough /1 #yyc #abpoli

Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Anybody saying "this is just summer" about all that #smoke & #wildfire is either misinforming or disinforming you, difference being the degree to which they KNOW what they're saying is UNTRUE. Neither is useful in deterring future #Jasper-like disasters or worse /2 #Climate #ExtremeHeat
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
The week that saw the utter destruction of ~ 1/3 of the town of #Jasper & over 1.3 million Calgarians breathing #VeryHighRisk #AirQuality started with Sunday July 21, 2024 being the hottest day in recorded history. The record didn't last a single day. /3

#HeatWave #ExtremeHeat #Climate
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024

We keep breaking all the wrong kinds of records. This week was shocking to live through it but nobody that values science, data & facts should be surprised. Scientists warned us for a long time. It's here now. It's no longer academic & should never've been "political." /4

#Climate #Jasper #Wildfire https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/climate-warming-copernicus-record-united-nations-1.7224438

Earth hit with 12 straight months of record-breaking temperatures | CBC News

The planet’s string of record-breaking temperatures has continued for a full year, with May marking the 12th consecutive month for which its average temperature set a new record for the month. The grim milestone prompted a call for urgent action from the United Nations.

CBC
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
The math here is elementary: human-caused #ClimateChange dramatically heats the planet. A hotter planet means longer #DrySeasons creating more kindling or FUEL from our forests, resulting in larger, more destructive #Wildfire & a WHOLE LOT MORE SMOKE /5 #Climate #Jasper https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/climate/earth-hottest-years.html
Earth’s Last 8 Years Were the Hottest on Record

Europe experienced its hottest summer ever, while 2022 was the fifth-hottest year on record worldwide.

The New York Times
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Anybody can claim all the #Wildfires we now experience are just "what happens in summer" so long as they're either oblivious to the available data or outright denying it. On average, 2.5 million hectares burn in Canada each year. Last year we hit 18.4 /6 https://globalnews.ca/news/10141857/canada-wildfires-side-effects/
Wildfires burned 18.5M hectares of land in 2023. What will happen come thaw?

Wildfires leave a mark, and after a season that saw 18.5 million hectares of land burned, some experts are warning about the effects they can have in future extreme weather events.

Global News
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Anybody can claim ALL THAT SMOKE 1.3 million Calgarians now experience is just "what happens in summer" so long as they're either oblivious to the available data or outright denying it. In the 80s & 90s #YYC used to average just 12 hrs of #smoke a year. Last year we hit ~ 500 /7
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
It's not just that we're breathing WAY MORE SMOKE these days, we're also breathing WAY MORE TOXIC SMOKE, which we know because we monitor #AirQuality & where we've always rated it from 1-10 our last few years have forced us to create a right-off-the-charts rating called "10+" /8
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
It's that 10+ #VeryHighRisk air that kept many Calgarians (including this one) locked into their 30+ degree apartments shut off entirely from any fresh, cool night air. It's awful. And then you find out we might lose #Jasper. /9 #AQHI #HeatWave https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-air-quality-high-risk-wildfire-smoke-1.7275491
Calgary's air quality deemed 'high risk' as wildfire smoke hangs over the city | CBC News

With Calgary and many surrounding areas blanketed in a haze of thick wildfire smoke, doctors are warning people to take precautions.

CBC
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Same folks that first denied
#ClimateChange was real then last year told you increased #Wildfire was due to an evil #MassArson cabal now gaslight that we're actually not experiencing an increase at all, that what just happened to #Jasper is #JustSummer. Reckless. And wrong. /10 https://thenarwhal.ca/wildfire-canada-explainer/
How Canada’s wildfires start: climate misinformation explained | The Narwhal

How are wildfire conspiracies like arson and space lasers spreading? How bad are Canada’s wildfires? An explainer

The Narwhal
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
#Jasper happened in 2024, one year after the worst #wildfire season (in hectares burnt up, so far) in Canada's recorded history. In Alberta last year we broke our own wildfire record BEFORE AUGUST at which point both #Yellowknife & #Kelowna needed evacuations IN THE SAME WEEK /11
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
I'm not #JasperStrong I'm #JasperAngry. It was all predicted. #Jasper was preventable, as were the 600 Canadians killed from #ExtremeHeat in BC in 2021. It's irrefutable: keep on as we have & the only certainty is MORE JASPERS & MORE DEAD CANADIANS /12 https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-politicians-arent-connecting-climate-change-with-wildfires
Opinion: Politicians aren't connecting climate change with wildfires | Edmonton Journal

We need to be much more clear-eyed about wildfires in Alberta and the causes, complications and consequences.

Edmonton Journal
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Simple: we made the world hotter. Turned our forests into increasingly effective wildfire fuel which means more towns & cities are in increasingly grave danger. Means we breathe more (and more toxic) smoke because of it. Longer we avoid addressing it, worse it gets. /13
#Jasper #Climate
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
The fix to this, the wickedest of problems we've ever faced, is simple too: #TaxTheBillionaires & #SueBigOil. Every cent we'll ever need is right there for the taking. No, really. They lied to us about it, they made gobs of $ on it, we're on fire so now they gotta pay. Easy /14 https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/suing-fossil-fuel-companies/
Why Criminal Lawsuits Might Be a Key to Solving the Climate Crisis

Could the climate crisis be solved in the courtroom?

Outside Online
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Canada (yes even Alberta) has a strong majority supporting #ClimateAction but we don't act like a majority. We'll have to if we want our leaders to work for our interests rather than their already very rich friends. How many more #Jaspers do YOU want to see, let alone pay for? /16
#Jasper
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Beware of politicians cynically co-opting things like #JasperStrong, especially if their only climate "policy" is #AxeTheTax. It's like #ThoughtsAndPrayers from NRA-funded US politicians after mass-shootings. Ask instead how they'll turn the heat down. /17
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024
Always known/preventable but there was just too much $ to be made by our richest people, industries & their gov lackeys. That's who needs to pay for it all if, like me, you don't think it should be the taxpayer, who's paid the ENTIRE bill thus far. /18
#Jasper #SueBigOil #abpoli #cdnpoli #Wildfire
Show threadBentleyAug 2, 2024

Speaking of #Jasper's #TeachableMoments quite a lot of Canada's national media are #climate disasters all on their own. This is an actual #GlobeAndMail headline 🙃

The Climate equivalent of one of Canada's supposed top newspapers advising lung cancer victims to not quit smoking, just get more exercise. Disastrously bad stuff. The best that can be said about it is it's behind a paywall so at least nobody will read it /19
#abpoli #cdnpoli #wildfire

Show threadDan Neuman 🇨🇦

@Bentley The effects aren't linear. 0.1℃ now causes more damage than 0.1℃ a decade ago. Conversely, 0.1℃ prevented now has a much greater benefit and cost savings than 0.1℃ prevented in a decade.

Unfortunately, the people who write this crap are only concerned about the next fiscal quarter. They plan to be retired and rich in the next decade. Either that or they have really undervalued their souls.

Aug 5, 2024 at 2:43pmWeb