Call of the Wild

100 Mile House

Rain. Such a gift when so many wildfires are out of control. Today I can see the other side of the lake with its forested domes beyond. The air is clearer and less smokey. I hope there’s some respite for the wildlife too. I’ve heard so little by way of bird calls though we did see a flock of geese flying in the smoke the other day. Many people here in BC have fire insurance on their homes. Creatures of the forest don’t. 

Sitting in my cabin the other day, staying indoors to avoid breathing in too much smoke, I had nothing to do except think about how I can contribute to a shift in the collective human consciousness; a shift towards recognising that, in the words of a friend, “we are burning our own house down”.

As you can imagine, there are campfire bans here in British Columbia. Lightening strikes are scary as they create hotspots in the ground that can suddenly, maybe weeks later, inflame the area and start a wildfire. Farmers here are very worried about their crops which aren’t ripening because of the smoke. Hay cutting is badly affected because of the heat scorched land so there won’t be enough winter cattle feed. The knock on effect for all of us initially, of a climate becoming violent with fires and floods around the world, is food shortages and high prices. And that’s just the beginning. What about the wildlife, I ask, too? It’ll have another threat as we humans return to hunting in order to put food on the family table and we find that we’ve already wiped out so much of it.

Our usual response to what is happening around us is to bury our heads in the sand. “It is what it is” I hear everywhere as we suffer our sense of helplessness. As a Canadian woman yesterday remarked as she anxiously counted the lightening strikes, “the bible warned us and here it is”. 

My friends in Extinction Rebellion at home are calling people to assemble in London this month from August 23rd. How else can we mobilise our governments into doing something effective to tackle this emergency? They must be held to account for lack of leadership, intention and motivation. Only through a real groundswell of frustration can we bring about the gargantuan change needed in the way we humans operate. It’s time, folks; time to put out the flames of consumption, greed and corruption. How foolish are we to party while the house burns down?

Lightning strikes setting the land alight

Vancouver Island

These are not my photos. I have taken them from Google - they are photos of current  fire activity in the province.