What do you call something that someone does on a regular basis, never changes the manner of delivery of this event, and insists upon its virtues in his maintaining a life filled with consistency, conformity and personal peace? A “habit”? Swell…except in the world of exchange when it comes to advances in Science, I tend to refer to this process in Darwinian terms that sound more like a medical diagnosis and an affront to some uncharacteristic religious beliefs when discussing climate change and global warming: It’s a “failure” to recognize the obvious and adapt.
For the last six months or so I’ve got this “friend” (Yes, I have friends) who, upon seeing my STILL writing about the topic will immediately pull out his “Messenger” app, and in capital letters advise me – again – that such a phenomenon is nothing but a “HOAX”. I have no ideas as to why he keeps trying to make that point, but come this Saturday, just before noon, that message WILL arrive in my “Inbox”.
What’s happening right now that one can place their hands upon as actually being “fact”? Well, consider the reality of our about to find ourselves in the grip of a THIRD “polar vortex” for the rest of the month, despite the fact that three days ago Prince Albert’s weather was being affected by almost chinook-like winds that finally allowed city crews to plug your otherwise shovelled driveways with huge chunks of ice that have been dormant on your street even before Christmas. Come Wednesday, however, what was a balmy -10 C on Friday will see our temperature drop some 25 degrees Celsius, which may give some of us home that this year the Riders will once more win the Grey Cup.
Contrast this scenario with that of California, now well known for having its “fire season” starting earlier and earlier, the entire Pacific coastline from just south of Los Angeles and north a further 80 km or so, you don’t need street lights to assist you in seeing the sidewalk at midnight; that is, if that walkway is actually cool enough to allow you such luxury. Its “cause” is the same weather phenomena that has for five years running now has transformed the western slopes of our Rockies into fiery pits causing forest destruction and threats to the existence of communities up and down British Columbia’s major inland highways.
The cause of these fires can be directly attributed to something called Santa Ana winds, which have some of the characteristics of what we refer to on the Prairies as “plough winds”, but with “accessories” such as being excessively “dry” and hot, a product of their physical construction.
They start when a high pressure cold front (such as the now emerging polar vortex) moves into Nevada’s Grand Basin, compressing the air already in the basin, thus heating it. The larger the cold air front, the more the air in the basin is compressed and heated, accelerating the winds that result from the original air masses having to give way to the cold front, so that when those winds finally are released from the Basin at the Pacific coast they could be moving at up to 150 km/h, be as hot as 30 degrees Celsius and are already substantially drier (five per cent humidity or less) than even desert air volumes. the air over a typical desert patch.
If we “look down” at the Earth over the North Pole, we will see that our planet’s rotation is counterclockwise, which means that the winds will be pushed towards the coastline. Next, if you’ve ever tried to start a campfire at any time in your life, you will remember that once you start to see smoke coming from the dry embers that you’ve just tried to light, by gently blowing on that heated portion this will eventually result in flames forming and the fire started.
This “blowing” effect from the Santa Ana winds has a similar effect once hitting land. Anything that is already “hot” – and dry – will have their conditions exacerbated by the wind, especially power lines and transformers, often the first “victims” of these winds. As well, areas of land possibly only recently having been fire storm centres may not have cooled sufficiently or have embers underground that still are glowing, and eventually they, too, will succumb to the physical reality that this wind brings fire with it – as all Californians finally paying attention now know.
Now, should you choose to reread the last five paragraphs I wrote, you’ll note that there’s absolutely NO linkage between the fires being created and what government is in power. Since 1977 scientists have been warning us that climate change is “real”, is a product of our having shifted our life diets towards increasing consumption of crude oil products, and irrespective of whether or not the carbon tax is going to assist us in our efforts to fight back against climate change, our great-grandchildren won’t have to worry about the Second Coming, as the prospects of survival in a New World “Mad Max” will be of more concern to their families.
So what about the situations now unveiling themselves as a result of climate change are of particular concern to Saskatchewanians? Well, at least if you’re part of the “new” Saskatchewan government, not much, really. The fact that the California fires are portending the increased fury with which the Santa Ana winds will affect British Columbia forests on the west banks of the Rockies doesn’t seem to concern him, nor does he appear to draw any parallels between what happened to Fort McMurray and our own winds being the result of similar conditions as those in BC. Finally, we can see that forestry management will continue to be governed by the mindset that has established “clear cutting” as our favourite form of harvesting, while the fact that climate change has had seriously damaging effects upon our now overheated northern peat bogs, thus making them almost certain targets for increasingly dangerous windstorms and fire breaks.
The reality here is that someone has to start constructing a “futures” plan to resist Nature’s propensity to pay us back for its abuse. Whether or not we finally realize that all future hydro development and generation should include compulsory burying of wire and starting such maintenance in every community of the province, curtail urban sprawl, husband our agricultural lands to accommodate future needs for food sustainability, and even regulating the creation of new materials or techniques to use in building construction or mineral exploration.
We’re not “California” – yet, but even within the clutter of having to listen to the nonsense spewing from soon-to-be-President Trump, if we don’t start paying attention to real issues such as global warming instead of this windbag, northern Saskatchewan may soon find itself in worse deforestation scenarios than the western coastline of both Canada and the United States.
I’ll put money on that…
