As a child, California seemed like a magical place. I took a trip to Disneyland by car from Edmonton with my family, and it seemed that if the money flowed freely, there was much fun to be had. But when I went back at age 19, I couldn’t believe the difference a few short years made.
My travelling companion took me for a short hike under an overpass along a stream. The stream was so polluted it gave off the rainbow colours of harsh chemicals. My first night down there, the smog was so thick you could see it hanging in the air between a streetlight and the ground. And though public officials swear the tap water is safe, for the first few minutes after you fill a glass, some kind of mineral in the water makes it so you can’t see through it. My dreams of relocating to a scenic, beautiful part of the world that was full of opportunity were quickly changed to wanting to get back to Canada as soon as I could.
The Big Smog
When I was 18, I moved to Vancouver, known as Canada’s prettiest city. Even when you are in a rough part of downtown, you can witness the beauty of the mountains on the North Shore. Everywhere you look there is something scenic. I loved being on the west coast, but there was a problem. Almost every day I would get headaches. Not serious ones, or migraines, but bad enough that I had to take acetaminophen with me every day.
It was a while before I learned why I was having these headaches. A year after moving to Vancouver, I successfully applied for a student loan to get my commercial pilot’s license. I had been flying since age 12 when I was in Air Cadets, and this seemed like a dream opportunity.
Covering the downtown area of Vancouver was a thick, brown, greasy patch of smog.
A few days into my training, 5,000 feet above the city, I saw something that explained my headaches and nearly made me sick. Covering the downtown area of Vancouver was a thick, brown, greasy patch of smog. I had not yet been to California where it was worse, but up until that point I had thought Canada had dealt with its emissions problems, and that the people of Vancouver were steadfast in their preservation of ecology. I was aware of the Clean Air Act, drawn up by the government of Canada in October of 2006. The Act, which notes that Canadians rank air pollution among their primary environmental concerns, lays out short, medium, and long-term goals to address industrial pollution and emissions from vehicles and consumer and commercial products. It has a strategy to deal with indoor air as well. Somehow in Vancouver, it seemed the ecologists and others were missing the mark.
Before moving to Vancouver, I lived in Edmonton, which is again my home. Edmonton presents a paradox when one considers air pollution. According to the Alberta Regional Dashboard website, in 2023, 322,000 barrels of oil are produced per day. This is actually a decrease of 39.7% in the past five years.
It seems that, in Alberta, we are addicted to oil and gas. For some time, people in Alberta have said that we need to stop relying on oil and gas, and that we must diversify our economy – not only to stop the harm that is being done, but also for times when the price of oil is low which leaves the Alberta economy in the lurch. We have issues here not only from drilling and refining, but also from harmful extraction processes like fracking, which uses and contaminates a great deal of our fresh water, along with other devastating impacts.
Giant loop of problems
According to the UNESCO Ocean Literacy organization, eight to ten million metric tonnes of plastics end up in the ocean each year. This accounts for 80% of the pollution in oceans, and the plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade. Further, in our oceans, there are microplastics – tiny particles of plastic that can be eaten by marine life, accumulate in their bodies, and enter the food chain. UNESCO states that this pollution leads to dire consequences for the health of our planet and all its inhabitants.
The British Plastics Federation says plastic is one of mankind’s most useful and durable inventions, and sadly, it is made from oil. In the refining process, crude oil is heated, then sent to a distillation unit. Here heavy crude oil separates into lighter components called fractions. A fraction called naphtha is a crucial compound in making plastic. More oil, more plastics, more microplastics and garbage in our oceans.
It seems that, in Alberta, we are addicted to oil and gas.
While Edmonton’s economy benefits from oil production, its inhabitants feel few of the more devastating effects. The Government of Canada is trying to set goals and limitations on oil and gas production, along with caps on fossil fuel production. But there is a lot of resistance from Alberta politicians. Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith stated that the emissions cap program, which would see oil production cut back 15 megatonnes by 2030, was a “misguided proposal that would only harm the Canadian economy.”
The whole situation is a giant loop of problems. No one who is profiting from it wants to solve it. Global warming, largely caused by carbon emissions, is changing and even destroying some of our most critical ecosystems.
Fiery new world
It was early summer in 2023. I woke up and noticed there wasn’t much daylight, despite the fact that it was past 10 am and the sun was up. A friend called and told me to go outside and look at the sun. I saw thick smoke everywhere and a dull orange disc where the sun should have been. This was the beginning of the destruction of millions of hectares of forest due to dry conditions, and one of Edmonton’s worst times of air pollution. Though Covid had mostly ended, many people went back to wearing masks to protect themselves from the smoke.
In 2024, another tragedy struck, also a result of global warming and pollution. Jasper, a small picturesque town and tourist destination nestled in the Rocky Mountains, was almost completely destroyed by fire.
It will take decades for the damaged areas to return to their former glory
Jasper was the one place where my family got along the best. It was a place that made everyone happy, and I felt a deep sadness each time we left to return home. Now, the one place in Alberta I loved the most is half destroyed and will never be the same.
According to Parks Canada, the damage from fires in the Town of Jasper and the surrounding area known as Jasper National Park was extensive. In the town, 30 to 50% of homes and other structures were destroyed, including two historical churches that had stood untouched since 1928.
Outside the town, an estimated 36,000 hectares of forest were destroyed in the fire. Fortunately, many of the larger animals in the park were able to outrun even the fastest moving flames, but all forms of wildlife will feel the effects of so much traumatic deforestation. It is feared that it will take decades for the damaged areas to return to their former glory, and at least ten years for them to return to being a functional ecosystem.
With the recent fire that have caused evacuation of Fort McMurray, Jasper, and Lytton BC, and the havoc created in those towns, we are seeing more and more situations of huge swaths of destruction due to dry fuel and hotter summers. In this time of fear of the future, loss in the past, and sorrow in the present, all I can think about is the grave responsibility I have.
One day soon, I must return to Jasper to spread my father’s ashes where we spread my mother’s. It will come with a period of sadness, the loss of two very wonderful, special people, and the memories of times we took our camper on the road to embrace nature and fearlessly experience the great outdoors. Except perhaps from the threat of nuclear war in the 1970s, we never imagined that humanity’s lease on Earth could well be just as fleeting and short as our own individual limited time on this delicate and beautiful planet.
Leif Gregersen is an Edmonton-based writer, teacher, and public speaker who has written 12 books. https://edmontonwriter.wordpress.com
