On May 10, at 1:55 p.m, many Canadians had the be-jeepers scared out of them when their cell phones let fly with an ear-shattering screech. Some of us didn’t know, or remember, that it was a test, a heads-up warning from Canada’s Emergency Alert System. It was very effective in getting attention.
Future alerts will warn Canadians to be ready to cope with impending perils, such as another massive and destructive wildfire like the Elephant Hill blaze in the Ashcroft area six years ago.
A report, initiated by Indigenous communities impacted by that fire, found it had wiped out over 1,900 square kilometres of forests, grasslands and properties, including 100 houses, and resulted in up to $1 billion per year in ongoing nature, ecosystem and infrastructure losses.
We can’t afford any more fires like that. It was believed to been started by a smoker.
Wildfires like that one are just one of the catastrophic issues facing Canadians and the list keeps growing. What should worry us most? Climate change? The economy? Our relations with China? The chances of a Third World War? The housing crisis and homelessness? Crime and violence? The shortage of doctors, nurses and other trained medical staff? Wages too low and taxes too high? Gun control? Abandon or keep the monarchy and Commonwealth? What about artificial intelligence, will that be the end of us?
How many people have to die before we face the issues, never mind resolve them.
We ordinary citizens are limited in what action we can take, but there are some things we can do, like making sure our lifestyles don’t contribute to climate change.
That means giving up a lot of our creature comforts. Are we willing to do that, or can we just sit back and worry about the future of our grandchildren?
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