When the smoke from the Canadian wildfires first reached us, I was walking outside to get the mail from the day before and confused by the sweet smell in the air and the haze hanging in the air. At first, I thought it might be the smell of ozone in advance of an approaching storm. I had known, of course, of the smoke from Canada and its impact upon New York City, having seen photos and video of the haze that descended. But I hadn’t thought it had been blown in our direction as well.
However, as the news soon reported, I realized that the scent and the haze was indeed the smell of Canadian wildfires burning. I was struck by how this experience made manifest how very interconnected we truly are, no matter the boundaries of nation state. What affects one, eventually, will almost always affect us all – particularly when it comes to climate and the environment.
The wildfires are, of course, just the latest in a string of disasters and extreme weather events this year. This past January was the sixth-warmest January on record. My family had bought some new skis for the year and were looking forward to spending some time on the slopes. While we had one pretty good trip up north, anything local was far from ideal – a big blow on the winter tourism so many depend on in our state. In February, the temperatures across the country flipped between extremely cold and unusually warm.
The warmer-than-usual weather encouraged more tornado formation, with storms devastating some areas. In March, Cyclone Freddy hit Madagascar and Mozambique, lasting for more than a month, making it one of the longest-lived tropical cyclones on record, killing at least 400 people. A bomb cyclone hit California, killing two and leaving more than 100,000 without power. Hurricane-level winds affected 35 million people, resulting in the strongest March storm ever recorded in the Bay Area. Tornadoes continued, killing at least 25 people in Mississippi.
Another storm system moved through the country as we moved into April, killing at least 32 people. In fact, April 7 almost as many people had been killed by tornadoes in 2023 as are normally killed in an entire year. As April continued, we saw heat waves in Asia and the Mediterranean, with several Southeast Asian countries seeing their highest-ever recorded temperatures. In Spain and Morocco, the temperatures surpassed 101° Fahrenheit. In April.
And then, May arrived and Canada started burning. While wildfires in Canada are common in this time of year, this level of destruction in May is far from normal. Over five hundred fires have been reported, with nearly half of them burning uncontrollably – unable even to be responded to by firefighters due to location, severity, or some combination of both. A combination of record heat and drought is the cause and, with spring weather increasingly coming earlier and fall weather increasingly coming later means the wildfire season is also extending. Experts believe it is likely that this will be the most destructive wildfire season ever recorded in Canada.
At the same as the fires raged in Canada, Cyclone Mocha smashed Myanmar and Pakistan in the middle of May, killing hundreds and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. A typhoon that was later classified as a Category 4 hurricane hit Guam resulting in a state of emergency declaration from President Biden. And, as we all know, in June the smoke from the Canadian fires began blowing into the northeast of our country before moving to the South, Midwest, and West as well, resulting in air conditions which made it dangerous for some people to even venture outdoors.
An article published by the American Meteorological Society early in 2023 described the way that these extreme weather events are caused and magnified by climate change. One author of the report who is also a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Stephanie Herring, noted “Extreme heat events are more extreme than ever. Research is showing they’re likely to become the new normal in the not-so-distant future.” Increasingly extreme weather events will be compounded by two events happening at the same time, making the devastation even more profound.
At the end of my ethics course for a degree I am doing at Nonprofit Administration at the University of Notre Dame, our professor had us watch and discuss the Netflix film “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet.” Narrated by David Attenborough, it is a painstakingly researched film that highlights the various boundaries we have broken as a society by marching through climate change without halting the destruction being wrought on our planet. The film describes the science behind the planetary stability of the past 10,000 years and how that stability has enabled the development of human civilization as we know it. However, that stability is being undone by humanity as the natural processes we depend upon are increasingly eroded.
The Fourth of July holiday we celebrated yesterday commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. As such, it is a day that celebrates the freedom upon which our country was founded. And yet, as our planet, our neighbors, our very civilization is increasingly threatened by climate change we should be reminded about what sort of freedom we mean. There are many today who think American freedom means I can do whatever I want without thought or regard for the consequences my actions might have on others.
The Roman Catholic author Gloria Purvis reminds us that freedom is not actually doing whatever you want. Instead, she says, “Freedom is the ability to do what is good.” The human race’s refusal to be limited in the way we live is increasingly the cause of death and destruction through events linked to climate change. It makes me wonder if we need a new Declaration of Independence, a statement declaring that we are cutting the ties we have bound ourselves, ways of life that are killing the planet. It is time to ask how we can set our planet free from the ways in which we have enslaved it, used it, and thereby brought increasing destruction and degradation.
In some ways, it’s too late. By inaction over the past 30 years, we are now seeing the impact of climate change upon civilization. We must walk back from this brink. We must turn from a selfish concern for our own comfort at whatever cost. Otherwise, there won’t be much left for the generations who follow us to celebrate.
The Fourth of July holiday we celebrated yesterday commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. As such, it is a day that celebrates the freedom upon which our country was founded. And yet, as our planet, our neighbors, our very civilization is increasingly threatened by climate change we should be reminded about what sort of freedom we mean. There are many today who think American freedom means I can do whatever I want without thought or regard for the consequences my actions might have on others.
The Roman Catholic author Gloria Purvis reminds us that freedom is not actually doing whatever you want. Instead, she says, “Freedom is the ability to do what is good.” The human race’s refusal to be limited in the way we live is increasingly the cause of death and destruction through events linked to climate change. It makes me wonder if we need a new Declaration of Independence, a statement declaring that we are cutting the ties we have bound ourselves, ways of life that are killing the planet. It is time to ask how we can set our planet free from the ways in which we have enslaved it, used it, and thereby brought increasing destruction and degradation.
In some ways, it’s too late. By inaction over the past 30 years, we are now seeing the impact of climate change upon civilization. We must walk back from this brink. We must turn from a selfish concern for our own comfort at whatever cost. Otherwise, there won’t be much left for the generations who follow us to celebrate.
The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.