I was treated to a round of golf with my sons (OK, I paid. Whatever.) on Tuesday. I was worried it was about to rain because of the darkening skies. Nope. It was smoke from Canadian wildfires. For the past two days and into today, the air has been thick with a hazy smoke that has left us dry-eyed and occasionally coughing.
Were these particular wildfires caused by climate change? Scientists struggle to make definitive statements, since any individual event could be caused by any number of individual variables. Still, they have made predictions that extreme events like this will be more common and...here we are.
The irony is that the Global North - broadly speaking - is making really good progress with decarbonizing its energy sector. It's not perfect and I sort of understand those who say it's not fast enough, but it's real. The issue, I fear, in the next two decades will be using the wealth of the Global North to electrify large parts of the Global South with carbon neutral power.
Large parts of India, for instance, have no consistent electricity. Can they electrify with solar? How would that work during monsoon season? Who bears the cost? Few countries are likely to experience more extreme heat events than India, but it is a country very eager to develop its economy and Modi's entire political career is based around developing India's rural economy.
There is legitimately good news in certain areas of fighting climate change, but events like the 2023 Smoke Out are a signal that it's not moving fast enough.
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