If Not Now, Then When?
Summer is coming, and BC will once again be on the move, dodging from fire to fire. Due to climate change more frequently, we are seeing firestorms. A firestorm is the most destructive type of fire. Firestorms create their own weather. They create intense, self-sustaining winds characterized by powerful updrafts, hurricane-strength winds, and uncontrollable, massive heat. They also interact with the atmosphere, creating lightning strikes and thunderstorms. They also can generate fire tornadoes, a phenomenon that is known as “fire whirls.”
One of the most dangerous features of a firestorm is its aggressive, unpredictable behavior. This is where two of the most important departments, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Natural Resources Canada, come in.
Environment & Climate Change, Natural Resources Canada, and the Canadian Forest undertake research and manage wildfires using the Fire Behaviour Prediction system, the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, and the WildFireSat satellite mission. They also produce the Fire Weather Projections, Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS).
They fund community initiatives, such as Fire Smart Canada, which supports Indigenous-led research and cultural burning practices through the use of the Fire M3 system and the Accounting Reporting System (FireMARS) that tracks GHG emissions from wildfires.This is just one of the functions they tirelessly perform in other areas under prevue.
In the 2025-2026 budget there is a section by organization. This section reflects the estimated budget for the 2026-2027 budget. This information is from federal government’s website.
“In order to make expenditures, the government must receive Parliament’s approval, either through the introduction and passage of appropriation bills on an annual basis or through the adoption of other legislation. Prior to the introduction of each appropriation bill, the President of the Treasury Board tables an estimates publication (Main or Supplementary) in Parliament to provide information and details on spending authorities sought.
These main estimates are the first estimates of the 2026–27 fiscal year. The president of the Treasury Board will introduce two bills to provide supply for the spending requirements presented in these estimates: interim supply in March, to provide sufficient spending authority for the first three months of the fiscal year, and full supply in June 2026”.
At a time when wildfires/storms are ravishing the Canadian landscape, Mark Carney not only abandoned climate change, but he also killed it. He wants to increase bitumen production. t’s toxic. It’s heavy, so it’s very difficult to clean up. It gets into ground wat, contaminating it. It is a possibility carcinogenic. The tar sands are also referred to as one of the largest and most destructive industrial-environmental disasters in the world. Much of it is forever. The land cannot be remediated.
Mark Carney called LNG clean, or a low-emission source of energy. He sold this to the public, even though he knew differently. LNG is 95% methane. It is 88% worse than CO₂ over a 20-year life ,
In 2024, Dr. Robert Howarth published a study, “The greenhouse gas footprint of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exported from the United States” 1[1]. He concluded exporting LNG across the ocean, it would be 33% worse than coal. That is exactly where Canadian produced LNG is for. It’s to export LNG to Asian markets.
Where does it make sense to frack, process & transport a product 33% worse than reduce their coal dependency? Further, China is the leader in transitioning to renewables and certainly won’t be needed as countries transition, especially as they invest heavily in solar and wind energy technologies that are more sustainable than fossil fuels. We will be left with an enormous debt and another stranded asset.
Canadian taxpayers pay for all of this. The taxpayers also provide subsidies to corporations, which is inadequate enough, but most of it goes to foreign (predominantly American) LNG. Subsidies given by the provincial and federal governments are in the form of direct public financing and investment, infrastructure, capital cost allowances, reduced electricity rates (which British Columbians are already paying for these services), deferred emissions, provincial sales tax exemptions, and reduction of corporate tax and natural gas tax credits (amongst many other tax credits). In addition to these subsidies, taxpayers are footing the bill for pipelines, expansion of pipelines, bridges, and electric transmission in addition to these subsidies, taxpayers are footing the bill for pipelines, expansion of pipelines, bridges, and electric transmission lines. We, the taxpayers, are funding initiatives that pose a threat to our lives on Planet Earth.
The fossil fuel industry directly causes unprecedented climate events in Canada. Social programs and essential services monitoring agencies have been decimated. We are living under austerity, while the military is being built up to obscene levels and the money paid in taxes is going to corporations directly responsible for the climate nightmare we are already experiencing, which exacerbates the challenges faced by vulnerable communities and undermines public welfare initiatives. We are already far past mitigating climate change We are already far past mitigating climate change. We cannot change much. CO₂ remains in the atmosphere for 100 years. We would continue to heat up even if we stopped tomorrow.
Every increment of a degree will bring increasingly drastic consequences. Climate change is accelerating. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, Arctic Council, “By the 2020s or 2030s, it’s projected that the Arctic may experience ice-free conditions, regardless of efforts to reduce emissions. The loss of sea ice will likely begin in specific regions before spreading throughout the Arctic, including the LIA, impacting not just September but also August and October as temperatures rise.” [2].
Antarctica has shocked climate scientists at the rate it is melting. Antarctica, especially East Antarctica, was considered to be stable. It was thought to be immune to the rapid changes seen in the Arctic. Scientists were shocked to see the rapid, accelerating melting in response to climate change. The Hektoria Glacier lost half of its mass in two months.
The Thwaites Glacier (Doomsday Glacier) holds back the massive eastern Antarctica ice sheet. Warm ocean water is now sluicing beneath the Doomsday Glacier, accelerating the process. Earthquakes (glacial earthquakes) are “responsible for the largest share of new seismic detections” [3]. This too hastens the melting. The Doomsday Glacier will cause a 10-foot increase in sea level rise. If the Eastern Ice Sheet collapse, it will increase global sea levels by approximately 170 to 175 feet.
We are also experiencing unprecedented wildfires/storms, epic flooding, landslides, and conflict. We will lack sufficient energy for all the needed air conditioners. We won’t have enough water for our needs. Mark Carney’s climate plan is to not only ignore climate but also to expand the very things that have caused these problems, such as fossil fuel dependency and industrial pollution, which exacerbate energy and water shortages. Kicking the can down the road when there is no road left or playing catch-up is not a tactic. Climate change doesn’t work that way, nor does it wait until we are ready.
We are guaranteeing that our children and grandchildren will face a horrific future. We are sealing their fate with continued fossil fuel use. We have renewables. They can power the entire earth. So why are we giving our hard-earned money to a greedy, irresponsible corporation run by greedy, irresponsible people? Canada warms twice as fast as everywhere else in the world with the exception of the Arctic. In many regions of Canada, particularly in British Columbia, the temperature increase has exceeded 2°C. All I can ask is if now, then when?
1 Howarth, Robert W. 2024. “The Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Exported From the United States.” Energy Science & Engineering 12 (11): 4843–59. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.1934
2 Howarth, Robert W. 2024. “The Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Exported From the United States.” Energy Science & Engineering 12 (11): 4843–59. https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.1934.
[3] McMunn, Andrew. 1AD. “Iceberg earthquakes are shaking Antarctica’s Doomsday glacier, study says.” KGNS. https://www.kgns.tv/2026/01/07/iceberg-earthquakes-are-shaking-antarcticas-doomsday-glacier-study-says/.