‘Fire, Climate, and Community’ panel sheds light on the community impact of climate-related weather events
The panel featured award-winning author John Vaillant among other esteemed speakers
A panel of note-worthy professionals with unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds spoke at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Richmond Campus on the topic of ‘Fire, Climate, and Community’ on March 6.
The panel, hosted by the Climate+ Challenge as part of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) week, featured experts Melina Laboucan-Massimo, founder and executive director of Sacred Earth Solar, KPU fine arts instructor and co-founder of Fire Season Liz Toohey-Wiese, West Coast Environmental Law staff lawyer Eugene Kung, and award-winning author of Fire Weather, John Vaillant. KPU journalism instructor Tracy Sherlock moderated the event with a foreword by Kwantlen First Nation Elder, Leykeyten.
The panel discussed fire’s connection to the climate crisis and the effect this has on communities. They also unpacked subjects like Indigenous rights and social justice advocacy. Panelists spoke from both professional and personal experiences working and living in places impacted by fire and climate change.
The event shed light on how fire is impacting people, particularly in marginalized and Indigenous communities in Canada and across the globe.
“We see this all the way from a local level, to a global level, where the people who have contributed the least to the problem, are also those who are most impacted by it,” Kung says.
“I don’t think it’s always useful to have this kind of Olympics of the oppressed or who has it worse, and rather focus on who’s benefited and who’s responsible for making things better, and it’s undoubtedly the rich.”
Laboucan-Massimo is from the Laboucan Cree First Nation and grew up in the “heart of the tar sands” in Little Buffalo, Alberta. She shared how her community dealt with extraction industries, allegedly causing devastating oil spills, land destruction, and many health issues.
“It was immense. It was a very traumatizing experience to see oil on our home lands spilt, covering beaver dams, people [were] very sick. It still makes me feel sick to this day thinking about the air quality my family and community was exposed to,” Laboucan-Massimo said during the panel.
Laboucan-Massimo also shared how fire smoke inhalation left her ill and bedridden for months just a few years ago. Fire season has become an expected annual outcome during B.C.’s warmer months and has devastating impacts on vulnerable communities.
“I was living in a town of 200 people with one road in one road out. And I felt very aware while I was there, thinking about evacuations, like ‘What would happen? How would I get out of here?’” Toohey-Wiese says.
She says the visible impacts of climate change shouldn’t get in the way of practicing “active hope” in the face of this immense global challenge. Small acts of kindness and community can go a long way.
Vaillant spoke about community and the need to care for those around you during climate events like the 2021 heat dome. He spent seven years researching his book Fire Weather, which explores the relationship between fire and people, following the Fort McMurray fires.
He says the way the industry is set up has made this easy to ignore until climate events force us to take a second look.
“One of the issues with the petroleum industry is it’s given us so much,” Vaillant says.
“How do we show gratitude for [what] gave us the mobility to bring a lot of us here, and at the same time, now we need to stop because it is actually not helping us at this point, it’s poisoning us [and] making the world more dangerous.”
