{"id":75641,"date":"2026-07-21T10:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/?p=75641"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:07:32","slug":"connecting-the-dots-fires-fossil-fuels-and-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/canada\/en\/story\/75641\/connecting-the-dots-fires-fossil-fuels-and-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting the dots: fires, fossil fuels and nature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many people have been evacuated due to these fires and have also lost their homes in the process. Here is a list of some organizations that are supporting people on the ground with mutual aid and relief efforts<\/em>:
True North Aid<\/a>
Mikinakoos\u2019 Wildfire Response Fund<\/a>
Canadian Red Cross Wildfire Fund<\/a>
Regional Food Distribution Association of Northwestern Ontario<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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My brother and I on the rocks at Killbear provincial park in the 90s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

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My (white) family immigrated from South Africa in the 90s and my parents were keen to dive into all the things they thought were \u201cquintessentially Canadian.\u201d This involved skiing, which landed my Dad in cast with a broken leg, ordering food in a drive-thru but we never got what we ordered because no one could understand their accents and camping in parks like Algonquin and Killbear, quite possibly our favourite new activity aside from some canoe mishaps. <\/p>\n\n

\"Kids
My son and friends exploring the sunset rocks at Killbear provincial park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Decades later, my husband and I are now taking our almost four year old son camping to the same parks from our childhood. And, after a rocky start a few years ago, this summer, the magic finally clicked for him. He found joy in the mix of shallow water, sandy beaches, rugged Canadian Shield rocks and of course the bugs. But that magic was interrupted on our second last day when we woke up to an orange haze blocking out the sun \u2013 smoke from wildfires in Northern Ontario.<\/p>\n\n

While we were safe, the news was full of stories of communities<\/a> being evacuated and people losing their homes in an instant. Entire communities have been devastated, emergency response has been slow or non-existent and fires continue to multiply and burn today as I write. I\u2019m sitting with the fact that while this wasn’t part of my childhood camping experience or my experience growing up in the Greater Toronto Area, wildfire smoke is now a permanent fixture in my son\u2019s life, when it doesn\u2019t have to be. <\/p>\n\n

CONNECTING THE DOTS<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

As the wildfires blaze, destroying vital natural spaces leaving people and wildlife without homes, mid-July is also when publicly traded companies start announcing their second quarter earnings. And, with the Iran war-induced gas price jump, the fossil fuel industry is expected to report record earnings. I\u2019m also sitting with the fact that while a powerful group of polluting industries profit from spending decades lying about climate change, they are stripping away livelihoods, clean air, people\u2019s homes and time outside in the limited number of summer days we have in the Northern Hemisphere. Fossil fuel greed is causing the very fires currently choking communities.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

While these fires were escalating and forests across Canada continue to burn, Prime Minister Mark Carney was busy signing new pipeline deals that are putting taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars and releasing the federal \u201cAI for All<\/a>\u201d strategy that\u2019s light on details but would require many data centres across Canada as well as the energy to power them . Carney has even admitted that because his government scrapped the consumer carbon price and the oil and gas emissions cap, <\/strong>Canadian emissions will be higher in the next few years than previously projected<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> Saying this at the same time that we are witnessing the real time effects of climate change is wildly out of step with people\u2019s lived reality, and certainly not the forward-thinking plan we expect from a Prime Minister who wrote a book on values.<\/p>\n\n

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A post shared by Greenpeace Canada (@greenpeace_canada)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n