Wildfires in the Canadian province of Manitoba, which shares a border with the United States, have prompted authorities to declare a state of emergency and order tens of thousands of people to leave their homes.
The evacuation of 17,000 residents is “the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said during a news conference Wednesday evening.
Winds blowing north to south will likely push wildfire smoke into Midwestern states on Thursday and Friday. Northern Minnesota is at the highest risk for poor air quality Thursday, before a more expansive smoke plume moves southward Friday — with Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit all potentially seeing a reduction in air quality and/or visibility in the afternoon and evening.
Geez, the announcer’s word could have been from any of the previous 5 years. Alberta smoke is definitely becoming an annual thing.
I do find it fitting in a province that produces some of the nastiest fossil fuel on the planet, although more non-Albertans will suffer from it than the number of Albertans themselves.
I’m Canadian and the cognitive dissonance in Alberta and northern BC is shocking when it comes to the oil & gas industry. There seems to be no acknowledgement that the product they are producing is directly linked to the extreme destruction surrounding them. Unfortunately, the majority of the human species seem to share the same detachment when it comes to the impacts of climate change. Prepare for the worst. I don’t see humans doing the right thing any time soon.
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The British were convinced to leave India—a fantastically profitable and self-aggrandizing enterprise for them—by peaceful resistance, though there was some fear of violence as well.
It’s largely unknown but true that WWI was largely ended by the growing number of military and civilian mutinees. (Those in charge are terrified by such success and keep a lid on it whenever possible—as we’re seeing happen once again in schools in red states and textbooks determined by Texas.)
Major concessions or surrender were won by peaceful resistance in the Velvet Revolution, Poland, East Germany, S. Africa, S. US, and many other places. The US occupation of Vietnam was ended by action that was more than 99% peaceful (and heavily lidded, while the other .1% was trumpeted by the media).
The rich and powerful nihilistic narcissistic psychotic psychopaths suffering from their Folie À Plusieurs, or Shared Psychotic Disorder, will never give up power or wealth (interchangeable commodities in our society) and will never allow climate solutions as long as they have power and wealth. They won’t allow themselves to be healed because the mental illness addicting them to power, (the illusion of)control, and sadism to the point of destruction also compels them to deny their illness and project it onto others, both in their minds and in the outer world (weaponized projective reification).
They will have to be removed from power and wealth (or vice versa, for example with the Green New Deal) by peaceful means. Such (Gandhian) direct actions are also the therapy for them, or at least the early sessions of it. And for us.