The Fort McMurray Wildfire Isn’t ‘Ironic.’ This is How Climate Change Works

Image: Premier of Alberta/Flickr

The northern Alberta oil town of Fort McMurray has been burning for days now, forcing over 80,000 people to evacuate. A province-wide state of emergency has been declared. The military has been called in, and now neighbouring communities—where many of those who lost their homes had fled seeking shelter—are under threat from the spreading fire, forcing even more people to run.

By Kate Lunau | MOTHERBOARD

To the critics of Alberta’s dirty oil sands—and there are plenty—the Fort McMurray fire can seem like some kind of karmic retribution. This is the town that was built on oil, and has become synonymous with one of the most controversial energy sources out there.

„Karmic .climatechange fire burns CDN oilsands city,“ former Alberta NDP candidate Tom Moffatt reportedly posted, in a now-deleted tweet.

„Burn, tarsands, burn!“ said another, apparently ignoring that burning the oil sands would only release more carbon into the atmosphere.

#Wildfires threatening Fort McMurray gives me shivers of irony as the oilsands contribute so much to the warming emergency globally.

— ◉●○•° (@brightabyss) May 2, 2016

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