Getting Mad and Getting Even - TomDispatch.com

Getting Mad and Getting Even - TomDispatch.com Juan Cole, An Inflection Point in the Battle over Climate Change? October 10, 2023 If you want to be convinced that we now live on a different planet, just focus for a moment on those Canadian wildfires. Yep, them! You remember, right? Back in early June, more than 400 of them were burning out of control across that country and their smoke had drifted over significant parts of the continent, turning the skies of my own city, New York, a violent orange. By mid-August, they were still raging and had devoured an area of Canada equivalent in size to nine Connecticuts or a little more than 838 Washington, D.C.s. There had never been anything like it and, by then, scientists had already concluded that climate change made such a burning season twice as likely as it otherwise might have been. It was quite a summer, all in all, and quite a story, so is it now something to look back on with a certain dread? Unfortunately, no. There's no looking back yet because, sadly enough, nearly 500 fires are still burning out of control and in an historically unprecedented fashion in Canada. Thanks to them, less than two weeks ago, New York (and other U.S. cities) once again experienced smoky skies, even if less dramatically than in June. In fact, in a single late September week, enough fires were burning (and, of course, pouring carbon into the atmosphere) to equal a typical Canadian fire season. Worse yet, some experts believe that, though any fire season should be ending by now, some of those fires may continue to burn deep into the winter. And of course, Canada isn't alone in experiencing a new version of fire season. As TomDispatch regular Juan Cole, who also runs the must-read Informed Comment website, points out today, California, too, has been experiencing fire seasons unlike any previously known. Partially in response, in a striking new twist, that state's attorney general has decided to put some of the blame for our changing world exactly where it lies by suing the big five oil companies. If only we could truly fire them. Tom