The Nature of Fire and the Cost of Disasters: A Review of John Vaillant’s “Fire Time”
In May 2016, a wildfire started burning in northern Alberta that was so destructive it was eventually named after the town it devastated: Fort McMurray. John Vaillant’s new book, Fire Time, tells the story of this fire and how it unfolded against the backdrop of rapid oil development in the region. While not a direct disaster narrative or character-driven story, the book weaves together the history of white settlement in northern Alberta, bitumen production, and weather denial to explain the particular set of conditions that led to the Fort McMurray fire, and what it means for a world grappling with the changing climate.
The Expensive Disaster of Fort McMurray
Fort McMurray, located amid the Athabasca oil sands, is a prosperous Canadian city that attracts hard workers willing to put up with long hours, isolation, and grueling work for high wages. The median household income is nearly $200,000. Almost all of its inhabitants work in oil. It is the center of the largest, most expensive, and most energy-intensive hydrocarbon recovery project on Earth, with a rough estimate of investment to date of half a trillion dollars. Bitumen mining, the process required to extract oil in this region, is costly for companies such as Suncor, Syncrude, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Sinopec.
Fire Time provides a vital context for understanding how the world’s forests are becoming more flammable. The book details the history of the oil sands and the fires that have ravaged the region. It explains why the Fort McMurray fire, which burned for a year and destroyed more than 2,500 structures and 2,300 square miles of forest, mattered. Vaillant argues that climate change made the world’s forests more flammable.
Understanding the Nature of Fire
With charming literary flourishes and metaphorical language, Vaillant explains the essential nature of fire in a separate chapter. He discusses aspirational fire, which is the nature of fire to strive upward and to infuse desire, and how it creates boundaries between humans and wildness. He also touches on how wildfires are not catastrophic events, but rather normal and necessary in healthy ecosystems.
A Wider Perspective on the Cost of Disasters
While wildfires in northern Alberta are not unusual, the Fort McMurray fire was a stark reminder of the potential cost of natural disasters. It was the most expensive disaster in Canadian history until the costly 2021 floods in western British Columbia. The specific fires that caused the smoke that entered the United States may not be directly linked to the climate crises that frequently occur in western Canada (or California, for that matter), but they flared up at a time when global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires.
Additions
In addition to Fire Time, Vaillant is the author of other books that explore the natural world and human society’s place in it. In his 2005 book, The Golden Spruce, Vaillant tells the story of the eponymous legendary tree and its destruction in 1997 by a forestry worker. The book analyzes the ecological, economic, and social implications of the tragedy. Similarly, in his 2010 book, The Tiger, Vaillant examines the conflict between humans and tigers in a particular region of Russia.
While Vaillant’s writing style is entertaining and thought-provoking, his books can be criticized for not providing statistically rigorous arguments. For example, the section in Fire Time where Vaillant tries to link national obesity rates and gasoline use is frivolous and detracts from the book’s message.
However, Fire Time is an excellent book that provides a unique perspective on natural disasters and how they intertwine with human societies. It exemplifies how human choices and technological developments alter environments that have been stable for centuries, causing catastrophic consequences.
Summary:
Fire Time by John Vaillant tells the story of a wildfire in northern Alberta in 2016 that devastated Fort McMurray, a city crucial in Canada’s lucrative oil and gas industry. The book weaves together the history of white settlement in northern Alberta, bitumen production, and weather denial to explain the particular set of conditions that led to the Fort McMurray fire and what it means for a world grappling with the changing climate. Fire Time provides a vital context for understanding how the world’s forests are becoming more flammable. The book details the history of the oil sands and the fires that have ravaged the region. It explains why the Fort McMurray fire mattered and argues that climate change made the world’s forests more flammable. While wildfires in northern Alberta are not unusual, the Fort McMurray fire was a stark reminder of the potential cost of natural disasters and how human choices and technological developments alter environments that have been stable for centuries, causing catastrophic consequences.
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the day john Vaillant’s new book on Canadian wildfires, Fire Weather: A True Story of a Warmer Worldcame out in the US, Canadian wildfires became a temporary american obsession.
Skies in the Northeastern United States turned orange, hazy and dangerous as a result of more than 400 infernos in Canada’s vast boreal forests in early June. New York City’s air quality became the worst in the world, choked by smoke coming down from Quebec. Philadelphia urged residents to stay at home. Fire time, indeed. Great publicity for Vaillant, but so grim, like publishing a book on pandemics in March 2020 or a story of terrorist attacks in September 2001.
fire time is an account of a previous Canadian wildfire, which started burning in May 2016 and didn’t stop completely until a year later. Originally named Fire 009, but eventually known as the Fort McMurray fire, received its name from the town it devastated in northern Alberta. It caused 100,000 people to flee in a single day evacuation. And though there was a miraculous lack of casualties, the damage to the land was catastrophic. “Whole neighborhoods burned to the ground under a towering pyrocumulus cloud normally found over erupting volcanoes,” Vaillant writes. In all, the fire burned more than 2,500 structures in 2,300 square miles of forest.
Until last week, it was the most expensive disaster in Canadian history. Although the specific fires that created the smoke that entered the United States are not so clearly linked to climate crises like those that frequently occur in western Canada (or California, for that matter), still flared up at a time when global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires.
Vaillant’s book offers vital context for how the world’s forests became more flammable. fire time goes a long way, folding in quick stories of white settlement in northern Alberta, bitumen production, and weather denial to explain not just what happened when Fort McMurray burned (“100th-percentile fire weather conditions during the warmest May and dry in recorded history, after a two-year drought in a city suddenly filled with twenty-five thousand oil-infused boxes”) but also because this exact set of conditions arose in the first place.
Understanding this particular fire requires understanding the city that it burned. Almost all of its inhabitants work in oil. Like similar prosperous cities in North Dakota and Texas, Fort McMurray attracts hard workers willing to put up with long hours, a grueling pace, and an isolated lifestyle for high wages. The median household income is nearly $200,000. A resident tells Vaillant that the town hardly ever has funerals, as people leave before they get old. Fort McMurray sits amid the Athabasca oil sands, a sprawling natural reservoir of bitumen, the sticky, semi-solid form of petroleum also known as asphalt, which now functions as a nexus of Canada’s lucrative oil and gas industry. .
Bitumen mining is a complicated, resource-intensive process, but huge corporations like Syncrude, Suncor, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Sinopec have set up extremely expensive operations to profit from this rocky, tarry soil. “Fort McMurray has become the center of the largest, most expensive and most energy-intensive hydrocarbon recovery project on Earth. A rough estimate of investment to date is half a trillion dollars,” Vaillant writes. And when the fire broke out in May 2016, all these extraction projects had to come to an abrupt halt.
I should note: this is not a direct disaster thread, nor is it a character-driven narrative. Vaillant introduces the residents of Fort McMurray and describes how they survived the fire, but in rather cursory sketches – after finishing the book, there isn’t a sense of really knowing them. There’s about as much depth to the characterization as you can get from watching a short TV interview. Instead, there is an entire chapter devoted to the essential nature of fire. Sample line: “It is in the nature of fire to strive upward—in other words, to aspire, which literally means ‘to infuse desire’ and also ‘to lift’.” lost paradise and Macbeth be quoted
Vaillant’s narrative swirls and literary flourishes are largely charming, though it could have done without an odd footnote linking national obesity rates and gasoline use. I found myself wishing he would delve deeper into describing some of the individual residents he sketches, especially since Fort McMurray attracts such a specific, intense, and often fascinating type of person.
https://www.wired.com/story/fire-weather-book-canadian-wildfires/
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