This week’s newsletter is about fire, water, food and plastic. I took a slower, more reflective path today that I hope helps to reveal the interconnectedness of it all. Love to go deeper with more connection? Buy my book, Good Food, Healthy Planet.
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Blue skies, sun-soaked days, long clear nights are all summer-time joys, right? Of late though I’m glad for the rainy days too because I am starting to understand what lies behind the long dry summers, and it’s not good news.
2023 was the year people in the US and Canada finally understood the enormity and immediacy of climate change. It was the ‘year of wildfires’ when orange clouds were visible in the sky. Wildfires have long been a part of nature; naturalists and scientists and First Nation knowledge keepers even call this practice a crucial way to bring harmony to the rhythm of nature.
But let’s not kid ourselves, the wildfires we see today do not come with the benefits of the prescribed burns of yore.
Today’s wildfires are a result of human mistakes and changing rain pattern. Long drought conditions have resulted in crispy grass, dried undergrowth and fragile ecosystems.
Last year, I wrote two posts on Maple and Marigold; one to help people manage their personal health and the other to better understand how wildfires are actually connected to climate change. In this second post, I link to an article from 5 years ago by the David Suzuki Foundation that simplified the science and connection between climate change and wildfires. The linked article is 5 years old, mine is atleast a year old; the information though is still relevant.
Wildfire season is around the corner
So here we are, mid-May 2024 and “Western Canada is on fire.” Drought conditions are prevalent in many parts of Alberta and BC because warmer, drier winters mean less snow, snow that is needed to deeply saturate the ground. This results in drier conditions the following year, and then even drier the year after. Slowly, from one season to the next, there is a cumulative effect of collective action or dare I say inaction.
Alberta is at risk of severe drought this year.
BC is preparing for “early-drought conditions.”
At last count, 128 wildfires were still burning in Canada, 28 of which are considered out of control. And “wildfire season” as forecast for 2023 is still a couple of weeks away.
Beyond fire
I have been thinking about water this week, water that is so precious in our season of fire. How do we put out the fires around the country? By using a combination of chemicals and water. Is the water drawn directly from the lakes? Is it clean potable water? Are we using freshwater to douse fires, or is it perhaps, *she asks, hopefully, “grey” recycled water? Having grown up in India where water is a judiciously supplied and carefully used commodity, I am accustomed to the concept of recycled water. But I don’t see separate taps in Canada so I’m not sure. Are we using potable freshwater to douse fires, fires that are burning for weeks and months?
Could people who know more about this drop me an email, please?
What about the First Nations peoples who have been facing a water crisis as long as I have been alive? There are “26 long-term drinking water advisories on reserves including some that have been in place for more than 25 years.” Indigenous people in these areas have not had access to fresh water for decades. Water is trucked to reserves at great cost, causing great inconvenience to people who have suffered long enough already.
…while we douse fires with water that is good enough, precious enough for human consumption. I’m hoping I am wrong about this use of water. I hope that we are not using potable water that is so finite, so precious, to put out fires that are raging for months on end?! I hope we have a better system for this. If you know more about what we use to put out fires, drop me a note.
We can’t escape the warming of the planet. What we can remedy is how carefully we use what resources we have and also the way the suffering is shared across the people and lands. Let’s consider our water use for another moment.
As Canadians, we are stewards of the world’s largest above-ground, freshwater sources. That’s approx. 20% of the world’s lakes, glaciers, rivers and streams. Whatever we do, the choices we make as a society has significant impact on the world, and on climate change.
What we eat
An unimaginable quantity of freshwater resources are used in growing our food. Livestock farming, in particular is a thirsty industry. Here’s a snapshot from my book, Good Food Healthy Planet.
“Beef production requires 20 times more land and emits 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions per unit of edible protein than plant-based protein sources such as beans, peas and lentils.”
And the water? One kilogram of beef requires 15,000 L of water, whereas one kilogram of soybeans requires around 25 L of water.
What’s even worse is that the water – not included in this calculation of waste – that is left behind in farming communities and around animal feedlots, is often irrevocably polluted (cite: Good Food Healthy Planet, 2024)
So what can we do to urgently, immediately reduce our freshwater consumption:
- Move away from foods that have a large water print, like red meat. Eating vegan a few times a week makes a big difference.
- Cut down on bringing in any more plastic into your life. Plastic uses enormous quantities of energy and water, yes water to produce, distribute and dispose of. Finally, almost 50% of plastic products used are single-use i.e. utilized for just a few moments but on the planet for several hundred years.
What we throw away
No more single-use plastic.
From fire to water to food to plastic, climate change is a series of connections. The good thing is that even the longest, most exhausting journeys are but a series of small steps.
Small steps that we can start today, at home, around the kitchen counter.
That’s it from me today. Invite your friends to subscribe to this newsletter. Buy a copy of Good Food, Healthy Planet. More the merrier!
With gratitude and optimism,
Puneeta