My Review of John Valliant's "Fire Weather"

 The Fire Beast of Fort MacMurray

 

Journalist John Valliant tells the horror story of the great fire that engulfed Fort MacMurray in May 2016. It was truly a beast that acted like a conquering army as it burned most of this city of 90,000 to the ground. Fort MacMurray is the home of the Canadian oil sands industry where oil is mined in the form of bitumen that requires huge energy inputs to process it. Hence it requires oil prices in excess of $60/barrel to be profitable. Although high in cost, it does not require any exploration costs, because the location of the deposit is known.

 

Valliant has really written three books in one. The first comes from eyewitness accounts of how the fire enveloped the city as brave firefighters and citizens fought a near hopeless battle. Remarkably the city was evacuated with minimum casualties. Here we see heroism in action.

 

The second is a history of climate science going back to the 1700’s. He particularly pays attention to boreal forests, like the one that surrounds Fort MacMurray, that have become exceptionally stressed in a hotter world. In May 2016, the temperatures rose to above 80 degrees and the humidity dropped to a desert-like 12 percent. In that environment any small spark could and did ignite a conflagration. Thus, in a hotter world the boreal forests of Canada, America and Russia are all set up for great fires in the future. Indeed, the release of the stored carbon resulting from the fire has the potential to undo much of the progress being made in decarbonizing society. This clearly is not a hopeful conclusion.

 

The third book is a screed attacking the oil companies and the “petroscene” age they brought about. He recounts the oil industry’s early research into climate change and then their campaign of denial. I think he overdoes it. Valliant also seems to look with disdain at the vehicle heavy lifestyle of the oil workers. With incomes of around $200,000 a year, the workers had the wherewithal to multiple cars and trucks and all-terrain vehicles, not a bad lifestyle for the Canadian working class.

 

Nevertheless, the main message of the book is that we will be living with great forest fires in the future and more fires in the wildland urban interface neighborhoods which are prevalent in the American west.