The wind storm and heavy rains may have made you forget, but wildfires continue to rage in some parts of B.C.
Recently, Premier Christy Clark made headlines for saying she wants to see harsher penalties for people who start forest fires.
People who start forest fires should indeed be penalized heavily. But focusing on punishments for human-caused fires is a mere drop in the bucket when it comes to addressing the issues at play.
If even half of the province’s fires were preventable, we’d still be facing the possibility of raging infernos. And, as scientists suggest that this year’s exceptionally hot, dry weather is but a sign of things to come, we have to get serious about this problem.
The B.C. government has to set realistic budgets for firefighting.
And it has to take the bull by the horns and finally start taking real action to address climate change.
Stopping an idiot from tossing a cigarette butt into a forest is a good thing. But stopping the human race from destroying the planet is a much more urgent obligation.
