It’s back. As dangerous wildfire smoke blanketed much of the northeast part of our continent, the conversation about our new climate change-driven normal returned with a depressingly predictable vengeance. So too did the loopy comments from Republican politicians in the United States, reflecting a fundamental misunderstanding of both climate science and geographic realities. 

It is tempting, I’m sure, for some climate advocates to think that this will be the event — the long overdue moment where the costs of climate change become so obvious that they finally overwhelm our cynicism and obsessive focus on near-term economic realities. As the Toronto Star’s Adam Radwanski wrote, “last month, Aba­cus Data released pub­lic-opin­ion data sug­gest­ing that Cana­dians’ con­cern about cli­mate change has risen (to 80 per cent of people at least some­what con­cerned, up from 62 per cent in 2024) even as it has slid down their list of pri­or­it­ies. That sug­gests, the polling com­pany noted, that it could become more polit­ic­ally sali­ent if triggered by major events.”

Like most people in western Canada, though, I’ve seen this movie before. I’ve watched as destructive and destabilizing wildfires spread ash, smoke and misery across my city and province, and I’ve watched as the political conversation quickly moved past it once the near-term crisis was over. I’m not alone, and this isn't just an Alberta phenomenon. Trevor Melanson, the director of insights and communications at Clean Energy Canada (and, it should be........

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